Department of Ophthalmology, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University Faculty of Medicine, Kahramanmaras, Turkey.
Department of Ophthalmology, Karatay Tecnic University Faculty of Medicine, Konya, Turkey.
Photodiagnosis Photodyn Ther. 2023 Jun;42:103338. doi: 10.1016/j.pdpdt.2023.103338. Epub 2023 Feb 15.
COVID-19 effects microvasculature in many tissues. This study investigated whether the choroidal structure is also affected.
This cross-sectional study included 80 patients with COVID-19 and the same number of age- and gender-matched healthy individuals. All participants' right eye measurements were examined. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) was used for imaging. Otherwise, two independent researchers used the Choroidal vascular index (CVI) for choroidal parameters calculation.
Superior and deep flow values were lower in the COVID-19 group than in the control group, and vascular density (VD) values were lower in all regions in this group. Except for the superior mean VD, there was no statistically significant difference (p = 0.003). However, the COVID-19 group had significantly lower subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFChT) measurements than the control group (p = 0.001). In addition, no significant difference was observed between the groups in evaluating mean CVI values (p>0.05).
Noninvasive diagnostic tools such as OCTA and EDI-OCT can be used to monitor early changes in diseases affecting microvessels, such as from COVID-19.
COVID-19 会影响许多组织的微血管。本研究旨在调查脉络膜结构是否也受到影响。
本横断面研究纳入了 80 名 COVID-19 患者和相同数量的年龄与性别匹配的健康个体。所有参与者的右眼测量均进行了检查。采用光学相干断层扫描血管造影（OCTA）进行成像。此外，两名独立的研究人员使用脉络膜血管指数（CVI）来计算脉络膜参数。
COVID-19 组的上方和深层血流值低于对照组，且该组所有区域的血管密度（VD）值均较低。除了上方平均 VD 外，两组间无统计学差异（p=0.003）。然而，COVID-19 组的中心凹下脉络膜厚度（SFChT）测量值明显低于对照组（p=0.001）。此外，两组间评估平均 CVI 值时无显著差异（p>0.05）。
非侵入性诊断工具如 OCTA 和 EDI-OCT 可用于监测 COVID-19 等影响微血管疾病的早期变化。
