Background: To evaluate retinal and choroidal vascular changes in cases with hyphema after blunt ocular trauma that did not cause globe rupture or any retinal pathology.
Methods: This cross-sectional study included 29 patients who developed hyphema after unilateral blunt ocular trauma (BOT). The other healthy eyes of the same patients were evaluated as the control group. Optical coherence tomography-angiography (OCT-A) was used for imaging. In addition, choroidal parameters were compared by calculating the choroidal vascular index (CVI) and using choroidal thickness measurements by two independent researchers.
Results: Superior and deep flow values were significantly decreased in the traumatic hyphema group compared to the control group (p<0.05). Parafoveal deep vascular density (parafoveal dVD) values were decreased in traumatized eyes compared to control eyes (p=0.000). Vascular density values were similar other than that. In addition, there was a significant decrease in optic disc blood flow (ODF) and optic nerve head density (ONHD) values compared to the control group (p<0.05). In addition, no significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of mean CVI values (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Non-invasive diagnostic tools such as OCTA and EDI-OCT can be used to detect and monitor early changes in retinal and choroidal microvascular flow in cases of traumatic hyphema.
Keywords: Blunt ocular trauma; Choroidal vascular index; Hyphema; Optic disk flow; Optical coherence tomography-angiography; Retinal capillary plexus.
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