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Post-remission retinal microvascular and choroidal thickness changes in eyes with Behḉet’s disease posterior uveitis: an OCTA longitudinal study

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the retinal microvascular and choroidal thickness changes in eyes with active Behḉet’s disease posterior uveitis and post-remission.

Patients and methods

A prospective longitudinal observational analytic study where patients with active Behḉet’s posterior uveitis (BU) were assessed by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and enhanced depth imaging OCT during activity and after remission, for retinal microvascular and subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) changes.

Results

26 eyes of 20 patients were included. With remission of active posterior uveitis, capillary density in both layers increased, only being significant in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) 1.81 ± 3.57% (p = 0.025), while the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area increased by 0.036 ± 0.069 mm (p = 0.023).

Conclusion

OCTA can be used to monitor the activity of Behḉet’s posterior uveitis. Comparing the retinal microvascular changes during activity and after remission, the superficial capillary plexus was found to be more indicative of the activity status, while the deep capillary plexus and foveal avascular zone area—being more irreversible—are more useful as prognostic indicators. Subfoveal choroidal thickness, on the other hand, proved to be a consistent indictor of visual function; however, its change doesn’t accurately reflect the activity status.

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Data availability

The raw data (excel sheet) that support the findings of this study and all the patients’ images (OCTA and OCT) are available upon request from the corresponding author (A.W.)

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Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Kasr Al Ainy Hospital, Cairo University, El Saray Street, Manial, Cairo, 11956, Egypt

    Amr Mohamed Abdelaziz Wassef, Mohamad Amr Salah Eddin Abdelhakim, Tamer Ahmed Macky, Karim Adly Raafat & Maha Mohamed Youssef

Authors
  1. Amr Mohamed Abdelaziz Wassef
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  2. Mohamad Amr Salah Eddin Abdelhakim
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  3. Tamer Ahmed Macky
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  4. Karim Adly Raafat
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  5. Maha Mohamed Youssef
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Contributions

Amr Mohamed Abdelaziz Wassef was involved in collecting patients, logistics of imaging, following up patients, and writing the manuscript. Mohamad Amr Salah Eddin Abdelhakim was involved in reviewing manuscript, editing the figures, and writing the legends and all the statistics. Tamer Ahmed Macky was involved in reviewing the manuscript and writing parts of the results section. Karim Adly Raafat was involved in imaging the patients, interpreting the qualitative data, and reviewing the manuscript. Maha Mohamed Youssef was involved in collecting patients and follow-up and reviewing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amr Mohamed Abdelaziz Wassef.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Authors of this manuscript believe that the research work was guided by the international standards of research ethics. All patients signed a written informed consent to participate, and approval for the study was obtained from the Hospital’s Research Ethics committee (REC) (reference number N 99) and followed the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Wassef, A.M.A., Abdelhakim, M.A.S.E., Macky, T.A. et al. Post-remission retinal microvascular and choroidal thickness changes in eyes with Behḉet’s disease posterior uveitis: an OCTA longitudinal study. Int Ophthalmol 41, 4163–4174 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-01968-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-01968-x

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