Stage-dependent choriocapillaris impairment in Best vitelliform macular dystrophy characterized by optical coherence tomography angiography

Abstract

Characterization of vascular impairment in Best vitelliform macular dystrophy (BVMD) is essential for the development of treatment modalities and therapy trials. As such, we seek to characterize the choriocapillaris (CC) at each stage of the disease process in 22 patients (44 eyes) with a diagnosis of BVMD confirmed by genetic sequencing. We utilize optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images to characterize the CC and correlate our findings to the status of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) as observed on short-wavelength fundus autofluorescence (SW-AF) images. We observed that in the vitelliruptive stage, the CC appeared as bright and granular in the area where the vitelliform lesion was present. In the atrophic stage, varying degrees of CC atrophy were observed within the lesion area, with the regions of CC atrophy appearing as hypoautofluorescent on SW-AF images. Our results suggest that the CC impairment observed in the vitelliruptive stage of BVMD progressively culminates in the CC atrophy observed at the atrophic stage. As such, OCTA imaging can be used to characterize CC impairment in BVMD patients as part of diagnosis and tracking of disease progression. Our findings suggest that the best window of opportunity for therapeutic approaches is before the atrophic stage, as it is during this stage that CC atrophy is observed.