Comparison of the vessel density measurements of the macula, optical disc, and peri-papillary region between ocular hypertension patients and healthy controls

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCT-A) findings in patients with Ocular Hypertension (OHT) and compare them with healthy individuals.

Methods: Thirty-four patients with ocular hypertension (OHT) and 22 healthy individuals were included in the study. Foveal thickness, retinal vascular density in superficial and deep capillary plexus and choriocapillaris, foveal avascular zone (FAZ), acircularity index (AI), foveal vessel density (FD), non-flow area, capillary and all vessel densities in the peripapillary area and the disc were automatically measured using the Angiovue software of OCT-A and compared between groups.

Results: The comparison of the macular OCT-A findings did not reveal a significant difference between the two groups in terms of central macular thickness, superficial and deep capillary plexus vessel density (p>0.05). The foveal avascular zone width was significantly higher in OHT subjects compared to the control group (0.30±0.08 µ and 0.25±0.11 µ, respectively; p = 0.04). The comparison of optic nerve OCT-A findings revealed that the whole-field vessel density (wVD) (p = 0.007), peripapillary vessel density (pVD) (p = 0.001), inferior, superior and temporal radial peripapillary capillary plexus vessel density (p = 0.006, p = 0.008, p = 0.02) and the mean retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (p = 0.02) were significantly lower in the OHT group.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the decrement in the optic disc vascular density and foveal avascular zone width was significantly higher in OHT subjects. The possible effect or role of these microvascular changes in terms of glaucoma development should be examined through further studies.

Keywords: Macula; Ocular hypertension; Optic disc; Optical coherence tomography angiography; Vascular density.