The Spectrum of Central Choriocapillaris Abnormalities on Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in the Fellow Eye of Unilateral Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration Patients: From Flow Deficits to Subclinical Non-Exudative Neovascularization

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine Vol. 10; no. 12; p. 2658
• Main Authors: Khorrami Kashi, Alexis, Souied, Eric, Fares, Selim, Borrelli, Enrico, Capuano, Vittorio, Jung, Camille, Querques, Giuseppe, Mouallem, Alexandra, Miere, Alexandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 16.06.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; AMD; Atrophy; choriocapillaris; Clinical medicine; Diabetic retinopathy; Engineering; fellow eye; Macular degeneration; Medical imaging; oct-angiography; Photoreceptors; quiescent macular neovascularization; Regression analysis; United States > US; Germany; Fiji
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 2077-0383
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm10122658

We evaluated the spectrum of choriocapillaris (CC) abnormalities in the fellow eyes of unilateral exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients using swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA). Fellow eyes of unilateral exudative AMD patients were prospectively included between May 2018 and October 2018. Patients underwent a multimodal imaging including a SS-OCTA. Demographics and clinical findings were analyzed. The estimated prevalence of macular neovascularization (MNV) was computed. Number and size of flow deficits (FDs) and percentage of flow deficits (FD%) were computed on the compensated CC flow images with the Fiji software. We included 97 eyes of 97 patients (mean age was 80 ± 7.66 years, 39 males, 58 females). The prevalence of MNV in the studied eyes was 8.25% (8/97 eyes). In the 89 non-neovascular eyes, FD% averaged 45.84% ± 11.63%, with a corresponding total area of FDs of 4.19 ± 1.12 mm2. There was a higher prevalence of drusenoid pigment epithelial detachment in eyes with subclinical neovascularization (p = 0.021). Fellow eyes with unilateral exudative AMD encompassed a series of CC abnormalities, from FDs of the aging CC to subclinical non-exudative MNV.