Interocular Symmetry of Vascular Density and Association with Central Macular Thickness of Healthy Adults by Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

Guodong Liu,Khusbu Keyal,Fang Wang

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-16675-w

Guodong Liu, Khusbu Keyal + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-16675-w

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Abstract

In order to analyze the interocular correlation of vascular density, foveal avascular zone (FAZ) size, central macular thickness (CMT), and to investigate the relationship between vascular density and CMT in normal eyes, retinal vascular density in superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP) and choriocapillaris (CC) networks, FAZ size, and CMT were visualized by optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography. A total of 174 eyes of 87 normal Chinese subjects were enrolled in the study. The results showed that FAZ and CMT measurements are not statistically significant between right and left eyes, but right eyes had higher vascular density in superficial, deep retinal capillary and choriocapillaris networks, which might be related with dominant eyes. Spearman correlation test revealed a high correlation between right and left eyes for FAZ and CMT measurements (r = 0.934; r = 0.935), and a moderate correlation for SCP, DCP and CC density (r = 0.402; r = 0.666; r = 0.417). The analysis showed greater vascular density with smaller FAZ size, and a high negative relationship between FAZ and CMT, which indicates a positive correlation between retinal blood supply and retinal thickness.

Highlights

In addition to the vascular changes of retinal diseases, studies focused on the normative data for the measurements of vascular density, foveal avascular zone (FAZ) size and radial peripapillary capillary density in normal eyes[4,5,10]
Several studies report the normative data of vascular density and FAZ area by optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography in normal subjects[14,15,16]
A novel software program of AngioAnalytics incorporated into the AngioVue system enables the quantitative evaluation of FAZ area and vessel density in different layers automatically

Summary

Introduction

In addition to the vascular changes of retinal diseases, studies focused on the normative data for the measurements of vascular density, FAZ size and radial peripapillary capillary density in normal eyes[4,5,10]. It is necessary to study the interocular symmetry of macular vascular measurements in normal subjects, as it can be used as a reference value to assess the preoperative macular measurements of operated eyes according to the fellow eyes. The published literature has not revealed any results concerning the interocular symmetry of vascular density, FAZ size, and relationship with CMT in healthy subjects. The aim of our study is to quantify vascular density, the FAZ area and central foveal thickness by OCT angiography automatically, and to analyze the differences of the macular measurements between right and left eyes. We will furtherly evaluate the relationship between vascular density and macular retinal thickness in healthy subjects

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