Purpose: To differentiate acute central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) subtypes by multimodal imaging.
Methods: The research was designed as a prospective, interventional study. Naive patients with acute CSC were followed for 24 months. Overall, 96 CSC patients (96 eyes) and 210 controls (210 eyes) were included. Multimodal imaging allowed the study to classify CSC into retinal pigment epithelium-related CSC (RPE-CSC) and choroidal-related CSC (choroidal-CSC) subtypes. The RPE-CSC type was characterized by normal choroidal thickness (CT) in association with disseminated RPE alterations. The choroidal-CSC type was distinguished by identifying a pachychoroid. All the patients underwent eplerenone or verteporfin photodynamic therapy (PDT). Patients developing macular neovascularization (MNV) underwent anti-VEGF injections. Quantitative measurements included central macular thickness (CMT), choroidal thickness (CT), Sattler layer thickness (SLT) and Haller layer thickness (HLT).
Results: Considering the CSC patients as a whole, baseline BCVA was 0.18 ± 0.25 LogMAR, increasing to 0.13 ± 0.21 LogMAR after 24 months (P < 0.01), whereas baseline CMT improved from 337 ± 126 µm to 244 ± 84 µm after 24 months (P < 0.01). We found the following subdivision of CSC eyes: RPE-CSC type (45%) and choroidal-CSC type (55%). Overall, MNV were detected in 18 eyes (19%), 13 eyes (72%) in the RPE-CSC subgroup and five eyes (28%) in the choroidal-CSC subgroup. Forty eyes responded to eplerenone (57% of RPE-CSC and 47% of choroidal-CSC), whereas 38 eyes required PDT (43% of RPE-CSC and 53% of choroidal-CSC).
Conclusions: Acute CSC includes two main clinical manifestations, displaying differing features concerning retinal and choroidal involvement.
Translational relevance: This study identified two clinically different acute CSC subtypes on the basis of quantitative pachychoroid cutoff values.