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Choroidal vascularity index in eyes with central macular atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt disease

  • Retinal Disorders
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

To compare macular atrophy (MA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Stargardt disease (STGD) using the choroidal vascularity index (CVI).

Methods

In this multicentric retrospective study, two distinct cohorts were collected: patients with MA secondary to AMD and MA secondary to STGD. All patients were investigated using a multimodal imaging approach, including CVI in the subfoveal 1000 μm area. Of note, the CVI is not influenced by aging, which allows comparisons between different cohorts.

Results

Seventy eyes were included: 35 eyes of 35 patients (mean age 78 ± 7 years) in the AMD group and 35 eyes of 35 patients (mean age 41 ± 16 years, p < 0.001) in the STGD group. Choroidal thickness was significantly lower in the AMD group in comparison to the STGD group (151 ± 80 μm vs 353 ± 105 μm, p < 0.001). The total choroidal area (TCA) was significantly greater in the STGD group in comparison to the AMD group (1.734 ± 0.958 mm2 vs 0.538 ± 0.391 mm2, respectively, p < 0.001).

Interestingly, the CVI was significantly lower in AMD patients in comparison to STGD patients (27.322 ± 15.320% vs 49.880 ± 7.217%, respectively, p < 0.001), and this difference was confirmed in the subgroup of patients over 50 years old.

Conclusion

Our results corroborate the hypothesis that large choroidal vessels were impaired to a greater extent in AMD than in STGD. CVI may help in differentiating AMD from STGD in the presence of MA, better understanding of the pathogenesis, and monitoring of therapeutic response.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Eleonora Corbelli and Riccardo Sacconi contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

    Eleonora Corbelli, Riccardo Sacconi, Marco Battista, Enrico Borrelli, Francesco Bandello & Giuseppe Querques

  2. Division of head and neck, Ophthalmology Unit, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy

    Eleonora Corbelli, Riccardo Sacconi, Marco Battista, Enrico Borrelli, Giovanna Vella, Francesco Bandello & Giuseppe Querques

  3. Department of Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health Eye Clinic, University of Florence, AOU Careggi, Florence, Italy

    Daniela Bacherini & Andrea Sodi

  4. Department of Ophthalmology, Hospital Intercommunal de Creteil, University Paris Est Creteil, Creteil, France

    Alexandra Miere & Eric H Souied

  5. Foundation G.B. Bietti-IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    Eliana Costanzo, Mariacristina Parravano & Lucia Ziccardi

  6. Ophthalmology, Department of Surgical, Medical, Molecular Pathology and of Critical Area, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Giovanna Vella

  7. UOC Oculistica, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    Stanislao Rizzo

  8. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

    Stanislao Rizzo

  9. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Neuroscienze, Pisa, Italy

    Stanislao Rizzo

Authors
  1. Eleonora Corbelli
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  2. Riccardo Sacconi
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  3. Marco Battista
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  12. Stanislao Rizzo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giuseppe Querques.

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Potential conflicts

The authors have no proprietary/financial interest regarding the publication of this study.

Eleonora Corbelli, Marco Battista, Daniela Bacherini, Alexandra Miere, Eliana Costanzo, Giovanna Vella, Lucia Ziccardi, Andrea Sodi and Stanislao Rizzo have nothing to disclose.

Riccardo Sacconi reports personal fees from Novartis (Basel, Switzerland), Zeiss (Dublin, USA) outside the submitted work.

Enrico Borrelli reports personal fees from Novartis (Basel, Switzerland), Zeiss (Dublin, USA) outside the submitted work.

Mariacristina Parravano reports personal fees from Allergan Inc. (Irvine, California,USA), Bayer Shering-Pharma (Berlin, Germany), Novartis (Basel, Switzerland), Zeiss (Dublin, USA) outside the submitted work.

Eric Souied reports personal fees from Allergan Inc. (Irvine, California,USA), Bayer Shering-Pharma (Berlin, Germany), Novartis (Basel, Switzerland), Roche (Basel, Switzerland) outside the submitted work.

Francesco Bandello reports personal fees from Alcon (Fort Worth,Texas,USA), Alimera Sciences (Alpharetta, Georgia, USA), Allergan Inc. (Irvine, California,USA), Farmila-Thea (Clermont-Ferrand, France), Bayer Shering-Pharma (Berlin, Germany), Bausch And Lomb (Rochester, New York, USA), Genentech (San Francisco, California, USA), Hoffmann-La-Roche (Basel, Switzerland), NovagaliPharma (Évry, France), Novartis (Basel, Switzerland), Sanofi-Aventis (Paris, France), Thrombogenics (Heverlee,Belgium), Zeiss (Dublin, USA) outside the submitted work.

Giuseppe Querques reports personal fees from Alimera Sciences (Alpharetta, Georgia, USA), Allergan Inc. (Irvine, California,USA), Amgen (Thousand Oaks, USA), Heidelberg (Germany), KBH (Chengdu, China), LEH Pharma (London, UK), Lumithera (Poulsbo, USA), Novartis (Basel, Switzerland), Bayer Shering-Pharma (Berlin, Germany), Sandoz (Berlin, Germany), Sifi (Catania, Italy), Soof-Fidia (Albano, Italy), Zeiss (Dublin, USA) outside the submitted work.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the San Raffaelle Ethics Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Corbelli, E., Sacconi, R., Battista, M. et al. Choroidal vascularity index in eyes with central macular atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt disease. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 260, 1525–1534 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-021-05337-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-021-05337-3

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