Quantitative assessment of vascular density in diabetic retinopathy subtypes with optical coherence tomography angiography

BMC Ophthalmology

Siamak Sabour¹  Alireza Gholizadeh²  Ameneh Babeli²  Sahar Berijani²  Kaveh Fadakar³  Fariba Ghassemi³ 

[1] Department of clinical epidemiology, School of Health and Safety, Safety promotion and Injury prevention research centre, Tehran, Iran;Department of clinical epidemiology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;Eye research center, Farabi Eye Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin Square, 1336616351, Tehran, Iran;Eye research center, Farabi Eye Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin Square, 1336616351, Tehran, Iran;Retina & Vitreous Service, Farabi Eye Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;

关键词: Capillary plexus;    Choriocapillaris;    Diabetes;    Diabetic retinopathy;    Optical coherence tomography angiography;    Vascular density;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12886-021-01831-8

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundQuantitative assessment of vascular density (VD) of retinal and choriocapillaris (CC) in various stages of diabetic retinopathy (DR) using spectral domain optical coherence tomography angiography (SD OCTA).Methods188 eyes of 97 participants were recruited in this cross-sectional study. The macular OCTA (3x3mm) scan was performed and the computer algorithm assessed VD at the level of superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP) and CC.ResultsAll measured parameters were decreased in retinal VD at the more extreme stages of DR, with the exception of SCP foveal VD. There was a constant pattern of decrease in VD of CC from normal cases to cases of NDR and NPDR and then a slight increase occurred in the PDR stage but never touching the normal quantities. Age, fasting blood sugar, and years of diabetes mellitus were correlated with reduced VD in different segments. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was positively correlated with parafoveal VD at SCP and VD of foveal area at CC. VD of all subfields of macular area except foveal DCP VD showed reduced levels in diabetic macular edema (DME) patients compared to those without DME.ConclusionsThe findings of the study endorse retina VD changes as a potential biomarker for DR development before retinopathy becomes clinically evident. It seems that parafoveal VD of SCP and foveal VD of CC are good biomarkers to predict VA in the diabetic patients.

【 授权许可】

CC BY