MIXED PATHOPHYSIOLOGIES OF LAMELLAR MACULAR HOLES AND RELATED DISEASES: A Multimodal Optical Coherence Tomography-Based Study.

PURPOSE

To investigate the characteristics of mixed pathophysiologies in lamellar macular holes (LMHs) and related diseases using multimodal optical coherence tomography.

METHODS

Overall, 126 eyes diagnosed with LMH, epiretinal membrane foveoschisis, or macular pseudohole using the horizontal B-scan image according to the definition proposed by Hubschman et al in 2020 were analyzed using multimodal optical coherence tomography imaging including horizontal and vertical 5-line B-scan, radial scan, and macular three-dimensional volume scan images. If at least two diagnostic criteria for LMH, epiretinal membrane foveoschisis, or macular pseudohole were satisfied in these scans, the patient was diagnosed as having a "mixed type." Retinal traction force was quantitatively evaluated by measuring the maximum depth of the retinal folds using en-face images.

RESULTS

Mixed types constituted 34.1% of the cases. The LMH-related mixed group demonstrated intermediate characteristics between the epiretinal membrane foveoschisis/macular pseudohole and true LMH groups in terms of retinal traction and LMH-specific features and had a significant positive correlation between the maximum depth of the retinal folds and mean M-CHARTS scores (P = 0.034).

CONCLUSION

A thorough optical coherence tomography analysis is necessary to accurately diagnose LMH and related diseases. A significant positive correlation was observed between the maximum depth of the retinal folds and the degree of metamorphopsia in the LMH-related mixed group.