Department of Rheumatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006 Jiangxi Province, China.
Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006 Jiangxi Province, China.
Biomed Res Int. 2023 Feb 22;2023:1805938. doi: 10.1155/2023/1805938. eCollection 2023.
In this study, we aim to investigate retinal thickness (RT) and superficial vascular density (SVD) differences between patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and healthy controls (HCs) by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Sixteen patients with a definitive SSc diagnosis without clinical signs of retinopathy and 16 normal control subjects were recruited. All individuals underwent OCTA scanning to assess macular RT and SVD. We divided each image into nine subregions as the early treatment diabetic retinopathy study (ETDRS). Visual acuity (VA) was considerably different between patients with SSc (32 eyes) and control subjects (32 eyes) (p < 0.001). Compared to the control group, individuals with SSc had decreased inner RT in inner superior, outer superior, outer temporal, inner temporal, center, and inner nasal regions (p < 0.05). Outer RT was decreased in the outer and inner temporal regions, and full RT was decreased in the regions of outer superior, inner superior, inner temporal, and outer temporal, in comparison to the control group (p < 0.05). Patients with SSc had significant reduction of SVD in the inner and outer of both superior and temporal, besides outer nasal regions than controls. (p < 0.05). Moreover, SVD was significantly associated with the outer temporal region of patients suffering from SSc (p < 0.05). Diagnostic Sensitivity of RT and SVD of Inner Superior Regions in SSc, as indicated by areas under curves of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), were 0.874 (95% CI: 0.786-0.962) and 0.827 (95% CI: 0.704-0.950), respectively. In conclusion, VA may be affected by RT variations inside the macula in patients with SSc. Measuring RT with OCTA could be a useful predictor of early diagnosis.
在这项研究中，我们旨在通过光学相干断层扫描血管造影术（OCTA）研究系统性硬化症（SSc）患者与健康对照者（HCs）之间的视网膜厚度（RT）和浅层血管密度（SVD）差异。招募了 16 名明确诊断为 SSc 的患者，这些患者没有视网膜病变的临床迹象，同时还招募了 16 名正常对照者。所有个体均接受 OCTA 扫描以评估黄斑 RT 和 SVD。我们将每个图像分为 9 个亚区作为早期糖尿病性视网膜病变研究（ETDRS）。 SSc 患者（32 只眼）和对照组（32 只眼）的视力（VA）差异显著（p < 0.001）。与对照组相比，SSc 个体在内上、外上、外颞、内颞、中央和内鼻区域的内 RT 降低（p < 0.05）。与对照组相比，外 RT 在颞外和颞内区域降低，全 RT 在颞外、内上、内颞和外颞区域降低（p < 0.05）。与对照组相比，SSc 患者的内和外上、上和颞、外鼻区域的 SVD 显著减少（p < 0.05）。此外，SVD 与 SSc 患者的外颞区域显著相关（p < 0.05）。由接收者操作特征（ROC）曲线下面积表示的 SSc 内上区域的 RT 和 SVD 的诊断敏感性分别为 0.874（95%CI：0.786-0.962）和 0.827（95%CI：0.704-0.950）。总之，VA 可能受 SSc 患者黄斑内 RT 变化的影响。使用 OCTA 测量 RT 可能是早期诊断的有用预测指标。
