Department of Ophthalmology, Konkuk University Medical Center, Konkuk University School of Medicine, 120-1 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 05030, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2022 Jun 25;12(1):10821. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-15139-0.
The clinical implication of en face imaging of Haller vessels and macular neovascularization (MNV) in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is not well established. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the early-phase morphology of en face Haller vessel and MNV is related to the injection frequency and visual outcome in treatment-naïve nAMD. En face images of Haller vessel and MNV were acquired from 52 eyes at baseline, after three loading doses and at 12 months later using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography. Vessel area, diameter, length, intersection number, fractal dimension, and lacunarity were calculated. Patients were classified according to the injection frequency (< 5 as the infrequent group) and visual gain (≥ 0.3 logMAR) over 12 months. The infrequent group was associated with a longer Haller vessel length after loading doses (OR 3.05, P = 0.01), while visual gain was associated with a smaller maximal MNV diameter after loading doses (OR 0.22, P = 0.03). A predictive model for frequent injection based on the Haller vessel length demonstrated an AUC of 0.71. In conclusion, the en face Haller vessel and MNV morphology after loading doses can be used as biomarkers for the injection frequency and visual gain during the first year in treatment-naïve nAMD patients.
Haller 血管和黄斑新生血管（MNV）的正面成像在新生血管性年龄相关性黄斑变性（nAMD）中的临床意义尚未明确。本研究旨在探讨治疗初治 nAMD 时，正面 Haller 血管和 MNV 的早期形态是否与注射频率和视觉结果有关。使用光学相干断层扫描（OCT）和 OCT 血管造影术，在基线、三次负荷剂量后和 12 个月后，从 52 只眼中获取正面 Haller 血管和 MNV 图像。计算血管面积、直径、长度、交叉数、分形维数和空洞度。根据注射频率（<5 次为不频繁组）和 12 个月后的视力增益（≥0.3 logMAR）对患者进行分类。在负荷剂量后，不频繁组的 Haller 血管长度较长（OR 3.05，P=0.01），而视力增益与负荷剂量后最大 MNV 直径较小有关（OR 0.22，P=0.03）。基于 Haller 血管长度的频繁注射预测模型的 AUC 为 0.71。总之，治疗初治 nAMD 患者第一年，负荷剂量后的正面 Haller 血管和 MNV 形态可作为注射频率和视觉增益的生物标志物。
