Peripapillary and macular microvasculature features of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.

The hallmark of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) is vascular compromise to the anterior optic nerve and thinning of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and secondary degeneration of the retinal ganglion cell body or thinning of the ganglion cell complex (GCC). This study investigates optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT Angiography (OCTA) changes in chronic NAION and identifies imaging biomarkers that best predict disease. We performed a retrospective case-control study of 24 chronic NAION eyes (18 patients) and 70 control eyes (45 patients) to compare both whole-eye and regional OCT, OCTA, static perimetry measurements. OCT measurements were quantified automatically using commercial software, and OCTA was analyzed using custom MATLAB script with large vessel removal to measure 154 total parameters per eye. We confirmed that static perimetry mean deviation (MD) was significantly worse in chronic NAION (-13.53 ± 2.36) than control (-0.47 ± 0.72; Ischemic insult to the optic disk is more severe likely from primary degeneration of the affected peripapillary region while macula is affected by secondary retrograde degeneration and loss of retinal ganglion cells. In addition to OCT measurements, peripapillary and macular vascular parameters such as VAD and flux are good predictors of optic nerve and retinal changes in NAION.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2023 Pugazhendhi, Yu, Zhou, Chen, Wang and Liao.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

RW and YC were not directly involved in the data analysis in this study, they did have important disclosures related to OCTA analysis algorithm. RW had intellectual property owned by the Oregon Health and Science University and the University of Washington related to OCT angiography, which are licensed to commercial entities and related to the technology and analysis methods used in this manuscript. RW also received research supportted from Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. and Moptim Inc. RW was a consultant to Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. and Insight Photonic Solutions. YC had intellectual property owned by the University of Washington related to OCT angiography, which are related to the technology and analysis methods described in this manuscript. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.