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Evaluation of macular microvasculature and foveal avascular zone in patients with retinal vein occlusion using optical coherence tomography angiography

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Abstract

Purposes

To quantitatively evaluate the vessel density of macular microvasculature, choriocapillary, and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) in both eyes of patients with unilateral retinal vein occlusion (RVO) using the optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) compared with the normal controls.

Methods

A retrospective review was conducted on 72 patients with unilateral RVO (72 eyes with RVO and 72 RVO fellow eyes) and 72 healthy individuals (72 normal control eyes). The 3 × 3 mm macular angiogram was acquired using the OCTA. The vessel densities of the retinal superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), and choriocapillary plexus (CCP) were measured, and FAZ was quantified.

Results

The RVO eyes compared to their fellow eyes, and the fellow eyes compared to the normal controls, showed a significantly lower vessel density in both the SCP and DCP in the whole image and parafovea (P < 0.05) and the CCP (P < 0.05), except for the foveal region (P > 0.05). No significant differences between the RVO eyes and the fellow eyes in the FAZ area and perimeter (P > 0.05) were observed, while the acircularity index in the RVO eyes was significantly higher than the fellow eyes (P < 0.05). Additionally, the FD-300 in the RVO eyes was significantly lower than their fellow eyes (P < 0.05).

Conclusions

The OCTA reveals that the macular microvasculature of the RVO fellow eyes can be impaired in both the superficial and deep retinal layer as well as the choriocapillary, suggesting the influence of systemic factors in the development of RVO.

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Data Availability

The readers can access the data supporting the conclusions of the study from the first author (Lingling Fan) and corresponding author (Rongfeng Liao) via email.

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Funding

The study was supported by the Youth Project of Anhui Natural Science Foundation [1908085QH381] and the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University Training program of National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists (2017kj26).

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Author notes

  1. Lingling Fan and Yazhou Zhu contributed equally to the study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Lingling Fan, Yazhou Zhu & Rongfeng Liao

Authors
  1. Lingling Fan
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  2. Yazhou Zhu
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  3. Rongfeng Liao
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Lingling Fan and Yazhou Zhu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Lingling Fan, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rongfeng Liao.

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There is no conflict of interest to disclose.

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Ethical approval

The retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee of The First Hospital Affiliated of Anhui Medical University.

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Verbal informed consent was obtained prior to the interview.

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Patients signed informed consent regarding publishing their data and photographs.

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Fan, L., Zhu, Y. & Liao, R. Evaluation of macular microvasculature and foveal avascular zone in patients with retinal vein occlusion using optical coherence tomography angiography. Int Ophthalmol 42, 211–218 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-02015-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-02015-5

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