Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the changes in the luminal and stromal areas of the choroid in eyes with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease by optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Methods: A retrospective observational study. Choroidal images were recorded by enhanced depth imaging (EDI-OCT) at the baseline, and at 1 week and 1 month after initiating steroid therapy. The EDI-OCT images were converted to binarized images, and the luminal areas and the stromal areas were measured separately.
Results: Thirty-two eyes of 16 patients were enrolled, and 16 eyes of 10 patients had suitable images for the binarization analyses. The ratio of the luminal areas to the choroidal areas was 0.60 ± 0.03 at the baseline, 0.67 ± 0.04 at 1 week, and 0.66 ± 0.04 at 1 month. There was a significant increase from the baseline at 1 week (P < 0.01) but not from 1 week to 1 month. Although both the stromal and luminal areas were reduced, the percent reduction of the stromal areas (56.5 ± 7.2 %) was significantly greater than that of the luminal areas (42.5 ± 12.6 %) at 1 week (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: A significant decrease of the choroidal area was detected in eyes with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease at 1 week after beginning steroid therapy. The decrease was more evident in the stromal area than in the luminal area.
Keywords: Binarized image; Choroidal thickness; Luminal areas; Stromal areas; Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease.