Abstract
Purpose :
A decrease in macular vessel density (VD) has been described in glaucoma eyes (GE). This study aims to investigate whether VD changes occur in all three macular capillary plexuses in GE and in ocular hypertension eyes (OHE).
Methods :
A prospective observational study was performed with 111 open-angle GE, 107 OHE and 106 gender-age matched control eyes (CE). Macula was imaged with a 6x6mm scan using DRI-OCT Triton (Topcon), and VD was automatically defined by OCTARA algorithm. Statistical analysis was performed using Kruskal-Wallis Test, Bonferroni Post Hoc analysis and Spearman rank correlation.
Results :
Superficial capillary plexus (SCP) VD in GE was lower than OHE and CE (-4,93% and -10,20%), being the temporal sector the most affected. Deep capillary plexus (DCP) VD in GE was lower than OHE and CE (-4,05% and -10,21%), being the nasal sector the most affected. In OHE, SCP and DCP VD was also lower than CE (-5,54% and -6,41%). Choriocapillaris plexus (CCP) VD in GE was lower than OHE and CE (-1,7% and -1,1%), being the nasal sector the most affected (p<0’01 for all pairwise comparisons). However, CCP VD in OHE was not significantly different than CE (p=0,119).
Correlation analysis showed that SCP VD was low positive correlated with ganglion cell layer thickness (GCL) (r=+0,366) and moderate positive correlated with visual field mean deviation (VFMD) (r=+0,597), being the superior and the inferior sectors the most correlated ones. DCP VD was negligible correlated with GCL (r=+0,149) and low positive correlated with VFMD (r=+0,303). The correlation between CCP VD and VFMD was low positive (r=+0,287) (p<0,01 for all), however the correlation with GCL was not statistically significant (p=0,59).
Conclusions :
In GE and OHE, the decrease of macular VD can be visualized in both SCP and DCP. However, decreased VD in CCP can only be objectivized in GE. This finding suggests that the vascular damage may occur concurrently among the three plexuses; but at initial phases of the disease, vascular abnormalities may occur specially at the SCP and DCP. Eventually, the SCP VD resulted to be correlated with GCL and VFMD. Therefore, quantitative OCTA may have value in the future to evaluate or follow up GE and OHE. Nevertheless, further research is needed to obtain stronger results.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.