Evaluation of Peripapillary Choroidal Microvasculature to Detect Glaucomatous Damage in Eyes With High Myopia

Precis: Parapapillary choroidal microvasculature dropout (MvD), as observed by optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography, was useful to detect glaucomatous damage in highly myopic eyes with unreliable OCT results due to segmentation errors. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) imaging of the peripapillary choroidal microvasculature in detecting glaucomatous damage in highly myopic eyes, in cases where evaluating the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) is unreliable due to OCT segmentation errors. Materials and Methods: Forty-five highly myopic eyes with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) with an axial length>26.5 mm, and 15 age-matched and axial length–matched 15 control eyes were included in this cross-sectional observational study. All participants had a segmentation error in OCT circumpapillary RNFL scanning. The peripapillary choroidal microvasculature was evaluated on en-face images obtained using swept-source OCTA. MvD was defined as a focal sectoral capillary dropout with no visible microvascular network identified in the choroidal layer. The topographic correlation between the MvD and a hemifield visual field (VF) defect was assessed using κ statistics. The MvD size was assessed by measuring both its area and circumferential extent. Results: Choroidal MvD was observed in 44 of the 45 (97.8%) POAG eyes with high myopia, while none of the control eyes showe...
Source: Journal of Glaucoma - Category: Opthalmology Tags: Original Studies Source Type: research