Peripapillary and Subfoveal Choroidal Thickness in Retinal Vein Occlusions

• Published in: Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) N.Z.), 2022-01, Vol.16, p.3775-3783
• Main Authors: Moleiro, Ana Filipa, Godinho, Goncalo, Madeira, Carolina, Pereira, Ana Faria, Brandao, Elisete, Falcao-Reis, Fernando, Beato, Joao Nuno, Penas, Susana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: biomarkers; choroidal thickness; Diabetic retinopathy; Edema; Glaucoma; Health aspects; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolic disorders; Normal distribution; optical coherence tomography; Original Research; retinal vein occlusions; Risk factors; Software; Steroids; Vascular endothelial growth factor; vascular retinal diseases; Veins & arteries
• ISSN: 1177-5483; 1177-5467; 1177-5483
• DOI: 10.2147/OPTH.S379373

Purpose: This work aimed to longitudinally assess the peripapillary (PPCT) and subfoveal (SFCT) choroidal thickness (CT), in patients diagnosed with central (CRVO) or branch retinal vein occlusions (BRVO), correlating SFCT with central macular thickness (CMT) and PPCT with peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (pRNFL). Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective longitudinal study of 71 eyes from 71 patients with treatment-naive retinal vein occlusion (24 CRVO and 40 BRVO). Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT, Spectralis HRA-OCT, Heidelberg) was used to measure PPCT, SFCT, pRNFL and CMT of the affected and fellow eyes at baseline (acute phase) and at 3 and 9 months post anti-VEGF treatment. IBM SPSS Statistics version 27.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used for statistical analysis. A p-value 0.05). Similarly, affected eyes' SFCT significantly decreased at 3 months (p < 0.05) in both groups. At 9 months, compared to 3 months, SFCT decreased in the CRVO patients (p = 0.047) but remained stable in the BRVO patients (p = 0.850). No correlations between SFCT and CMT were seen at any timepoint in both groups (p > 0.05). PPCT correlates with pRNFL in CRVO at 3 months, although no other correlations were found during the follow-up. In BRVO, PPCT did not show any significant correlation with pRNFL. Conclusion: Both in CRVO and BRVO eyes, PPCT and SFCT at diagnosis are significantly thicker compared to the fellow eye, suggesting a possible increase in CT immediately after the occlusion, which is followed by a decrease at an early follow-up stage. Keywords: biomarkers, vascular retinal diseases, retinal vein occlusions, choroidal thickness, optical coherence tomography