The role of optical coherence tomography angiography in reticular pseudodrusen.

BACKGROUND

To investigate the changes in retinal and choriocapillaris vessel density (VD) in patients effected by early age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and reticular pseudodrusen (RPD), using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA).

METHODS

A total of seventy-eight eyes of 78 patients (43 male, 35 female, mean age 72.61 ± 5.15) with non-neovascular AMD (38 eyes with early AMD and 40 eyes with RPD) was recruited in this observational prospective study. Forty eyes of 40 healthy subjects represented the control group. The VD was measured in superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP) and choriocapillaris in different macular regions.

RESULTS

There were no significant differences in VD of the SCP and DCP among the controls and the two study groups (p > 0.05). The VD of the choriocapillaris revealed a statistically significant reduction in early AMD and RPD groups respect to controls (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the patients with RPD showed a significantly decreased VD respect to patients with early AMD in different macular regions (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The quantitative analysis of retinal and choriocapillaris blood flow by OCTA provided useful information regarding the vascular changes in non-neovascular AMD patients suggesting that the choriocapillaris loss is mainly involved in the pathogenesis of RPD.