Evaluation of Optic Disc Perfusion with Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Acute Non-arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to evaluate superficial peripapillary vascularization qualitatively and quantitatively in patients with acute non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Eleven patients with acute NAION and 14 controls were evaluated retrospectively. Complete ophthalmologic examination with best corrected visual acuity, peripheral visual field test, and disc angiography with OCT-A were performed. Quantitative optic disc perfusion indexes were evaluated by the device with automatically segmentation and qualitative comparison of choroidal, retinal, and en-face peripapillary perfusion angiogram images.

RESULTS

In the NAION and control groups, mean age was 57.55±12.34 years and 50.79±4.67 years (p=0.110), the proportion of women was 7/11 (63.6%) and 9/14 (60%), and best corrected visual acuity was 0.95±0.63 and 0.00±0.0 LogMAR (p=0.001), respectively. Visual field defect was present in 10/11 (91%) eyes in the NAION group. In 6 patients, visual field defects were correlated with areas of peripapillary and optic nerve head hypoperfusion. In the patient group, optic nerve head capillary density was significantly decreased (p=0.008) and radial peripapillary capillary density was significantly decreased in all sectors except the inferonasal sector.

CONCLUSION

In our study, we observed that visual field evaluations were partially correlated with optic nerve head and peripapillary capillary perfusion assessed by OCT-A. Being practical and non-invasive, OCT-A is a useful and up-to-date method for evaluating perfusion in NAION.