Purpose: To evaluate the retinal and choroidal microvascular blood flow in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).
Methods: Macular OCTA parameters including vessel density (VD) of parafoveal superficial capillary plexus (SCP-VD) and deep capillary plexus (DCP-VD), foveal vessel density (FD), foveal avascular zone area, and flow area of choriocapillaris were analyzed in 42 HIV-positive patients, and compared with 42 healthy controls.
Results: The mean SCP-VD, DCP-VD and FD were significantly lower in HIV-positive group compared with controls (p < .001, p = .014, p = .026; respectively). Reduced SCP-VD was associated with higher HIV RNA plasma level (r = -0.400, p = .021) and lower CD4 + T cell count (r = 0.314, p = .046) in HIV-positive patients.
Conclusions: Macular microvascular blood flow is affected by HIV infection. OCTA can detect microvascular flow abnormalities in retinal capillary plexus in HIV-positive patients.
Keywords: Foveal avascular zone; human immunodeficiency virus; microvasculature; optical coherence tomography angiography; vessel density.