Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate whether optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) can detect any changes in superficial and deep vessel density changes at the level of the macula in patients with retinal detachment within 5 months following surgical repair.
Methods :
A retrospective study included 42 eyes of 21 patients with a history of retinal detachment. Patients were imaged with the Topcon Triton Swept Source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCT-A) system between 3-6 months following surgical repair. A 3×3 mm area, centered on the fovea, was scanned for all the study eyes. Using image J software, the superficial and deep retinal vessel densities were measured in the retinal detachment eyes and compared to the normal fellow eye. The vessel densities were evaluated to in terms of their impact on visual acuity.
Results :
Five month following surgical repair, the superficial vessel density in eyes with retinal detachment eye was 28.39 ± 3.7 % and 27.02 ± 4.05 % in normal control eyes. The deep vessel density in eyes with retinal detachment was 29.16 ± 1.86 % compared to 28.20 ± 3.17 % in normal control eyes. There was no statistical significance between the two groups. We further stratified by status on retinal detachment and compared the data of mac-on (n=5) vs. mac off (n=16). The superficial vessel density in eyes with mac-on retinal detachment eyes was 30.31 ± 2.45 % compared to 27.79 ± 3.8 % mac-off retinal detachment. There was no statistical significance between the two groups.
Conclusions :
Five months following surgical repair, there appear to be no statistically significant difference in the superficial and deep retinal vessel densities in eyes with retinal detachment compared to normal fellow eyes. Although there seem to be a trend of higher superficial vessel density in mac-on RD compared to mac-off RD, the difference was not statistically significant. Larger studies and longer follow up following repair are required to further assess for vessel density changes following retinal detachment.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Imaging in the Eye Conference, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 26-27, 2019.