Quantitative analysis of retinal perfusion in mice using optical coherence tomography angiography

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate repeatability of the quantitative analysis of vessel density in the retinas of healthy mice using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A).

Methods: Seventeen eyes of seventeen healthy mice aged 10-15 weeks (young) and 75-95 weeks (old) were included in this study. OCT-A was performed using RTVue XR Avanti (Optovue Inc., Fremont, California, USA) under general anaesthesia. The retina was imaged twice using a 3 × 3 mm² scan. Retinal thickness and flow density data in the superficial and deep retinal OCT angiograms were extracted and analysed.

Results: The differences between the flow density values (whole en face) in the first and second sessions were non-significant (superficial retinal OCT angiogram: first session: 45.4 ± 4.1% (39.1-55.3%); second session: 46.1 ± 4.7% (39.1-59.1%); p = 0.14; deep retinal OCT angiogram: first session: 47.1 ± 3.8% (39.4-53.4%); second session: 47.3 ± 3.7% (39.4-53.8%); p = 0.50). The repeatability assessment of retinal thickness yielded intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values ranging between (0.86-0.99) while the ICCs for the flow density measurements ranged from 0.87 to 0.92 for the superficial retinal OCT angiogram and 0.68 to 0.93 for the deep retinal OCT angiogram.

Conclusions: Repeated OCT-A measurement of mice retinal vessel density (VD) revealed valid repeatability, indicating that this non-invasive technology is sufficient for longitudinal assessment of vascular changes in various mouse models and thereby opening the way to in-depth, experimental analysis of the vascular aspects of different retinal diseases and monitoring of disease progression and the effects of treatments.

Keywords: Flow density; In vivo imaging; Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A).