Evaluation of the Choroid in Women with Uncomplicated Pregnancy

Abstract

Purpose: To study the choroid in uncomplicated pregnant women using advanced optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging and analysis.

Methods: Women with uncomplicated pregnancy in the third trimester (>28 weeks gestational age) and age-matched nonpregnant women were enrolled in this prospective study. All subjects underwent spectral-domain OCT with enhanced depth imaging mode and spectral-domain optical coherent tomography angiography (OCTA). Main outcomes were subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), choroidal vascularity index (CVI), and choriocapillaris flow deficits (CC FD).

Results: Twenty-two eyes of 12 uncomplicated pregnant women and 23 eyes of 15 nonpregnant, female controls were included. The mean age was 32.27 ± 6.96 years for the pregnant group and 30.08 ± 5.49 years for control group (P > 0.05). Mean SFCT was 238.70 ± 82.96 µm in the pregnant group, and 277.40 ± 61.79 µm in the control group. CVI was 67.58% ± 2.45% in the pregnant group and 67.31% ± 2.62% in the control group. The CC FD% was 54.06 ± 3.95 in the pregnant group, and 55.02 ± 3.78 in the control group. There was no significant difference between the pregnant and control groups (P > 0.05) in SFCT, CVI or CC FD.

Conclusions: Although extensive hemodynamic changes occurred with pregnancy, choroidal measurements by OCT and OCTA demonstrated no differences in uncomplicated third-trimester pregnant women compared with nonpregnant controls.

Translational relevance: The unaltered choroid in uncomplicated third-trimester pregnancy we described allows clinicians to determine whether abnormal choroidal measurements could be used as a biomarker for complications of pregnancy.

Keywords: choriocapillaris; choroidal vasculature index; optical coherence tomography; optical coherence tomography angiography; pregnancy; subfoveal choroidal thickness.