Abstract
Purpose :
Vitreous cortex hyalocytes (VCH) are macrophage-like cells resident in the retina. They have a fundamental role in the maintenance of immunosurveillance, response to inflammation and tissue injury in the retina. VCH can be visualized in vivo with conventional en face optical coherence tomography (OCT). The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of VCH in human uveitis.
Methods :
Six high definition (HD) OCT angiography (OCT-A) of 6x6 millimeters (mm) were acquired with the Plex Elite 9000 (Zeiss, Germany) device from both eyes (if possible) of uveitis patients. The superficial plexus OCT-A and the vitreoretinal interface (VRI) en face OCT slabs were downloaded and posteriorly processed to denoise them with ImageJ. Number of VCH particles, size, brightness and overall distribution was correlated with the demographic and clinical data.
Results :
Seventeen eyes from 9 patients were included. The mean age was 30.96 (range: 13 - 53) years, 6 males and 3 females. The mean number of VCH in a 6x6mm field was 4502.65 (+/- 1441 (Standard Deviation)) particles, with a mean average size of 13.46 (+/- 14.35) pixels and mean brightness of 56.58 (+/- 6.13). In patients that have both eyes scanned there was a clear correlation in all parameters between eyes, except in 3 cases, 1 of the cases with severe unilateral occlusive macular vasculitis in the context of Behçet disease have a clear diminution of VCH in the eye with occlusive vasculitis. Only 8 out 17 eyes showed a perifoveal decrease of VCH. 3 eyes presented a linear pattern of distribution of the VCH cells and 2 eyes a granular pattern.
Conclusions :
Uveitides are a complex group of diseases with different causes, understanding the dynamic of VCH in the context of intraocular inflammation could be helpful in diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. It seems that in eyes with uveitis the distribution of VCH in the surface of the retina can adquire different patterns in contrast to what has been previously described in normal patients.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.