Purpose: To correlate key inflammatory and pro-angiogenic cytokines from undiluted vitreous fluid of treatment-naïve patients with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) with SD-OCT parameters.
Methods: Thirty-five patients (age 71.1 years, 24 phakic, 30 non-ischaemic) underwent intravitreal combination therapy, including single-site 23-gauge core vitrectomy. Twenty-eight samples from patients with idiopathic, non-uveitis floaterectomy served as controls. Levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) were correlated with visual acuity (logMar), category of CRVO (ischaemic or non-ischaemic) and morphological parameters, such as central macular thickness (CMT), thickness of neurosensory retina (Tneuro), extent of serous retinal detachment (SRT) and disintegrity of the IS/OS and others.
Results: Mean IL-6 was 64.7 pg/ml (SD ± 115.8), mean MCP-1 1015.7 pg/ml (± 970.1), and mean VEGF-A 278.4 pg/ml (± 512.8), which was significantly higher than the control values of IL-6 6.2 ± 3.4 pg/ml (p = 0.06), MCP-1 253.2 ± 73.5 pg/ml (p < 0.0 000 001) and VEGF-A 7.0 ± 4.9 pg/ml (p < 0.0006), respectively. All cytokines correlated highly with one another (correlation coefficient r = 0.82 for IL-6 and MCP-1; r = 0.68 for Il-6 and VEGF-A; r = 0.64 for MCP-1 and VEGF-A). IL-6 correlated significantly with CMT, TRT, SRT, dIS/OS, and dELM. MCP-1 correlated significantly with SRT, dIS/OS, and dELM. VEGF-A did not correlate with changes in SD-OCT, while it had a trend to be higher in the ischaemic versus the non-ischaemic CRVO groups (p = 0.09).
Conclusions: The inflammatory cytokines were more often correlated with morphological changes assessed by SD-OCT, whereas VEGF-A did not correlate with CRVO-associated changes in SD-OCT. VEGF inhibition alone may not be sufficient to decrease the inflammatory response in CRVO therapy.
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.