Esser Eliane Luisa, Brozmann Steven, Dierse Sebastian, Leclaire Martin Dominik, Eter Nicole, Mihailovic Nataša, Ehrchen Jan
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Muenster Medical Center, 48149 Muenster, Germany.
Augen-Zentrum-Nordwest, 48683 Ahaus, Germany.
Biomedicines. 2025 Jul 3;13(7):1630. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines13071630.
Varicella zoster virus (VZV) vasculopathy can occur in patients with herpes zoster (HZ). Our aim was to evaluate the retinal microvascular vessel density (VD) in patients with trigeminal HZ measured by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). : 48 eyes of 24 patients with HZ and 48 eyes of 24 healthy age- and gender-matched controls were included in this study. All participants underwent an OCTA examination using RTVue XR Avanti with AngioVue. The VD data of the macular 3 × 3 mm OCT angiogram of the superficial capillary plexus (SCP), the deep capillary plexus (DCP), and the choriocapillaris (CC) as well as the VD data of the optic nerve head (ONH) were extracted and analyzed. The VD in the SCP, DCP, and CC of patients with HZ was significantly lower compared with healthy controls ( < 0.05). Equally, there was a noticeable reduction in the inside disk area of the ONH. There was no statistically noticeable reduction in the FAZ area and central retinal thickness. : In this study, HZ patients demonstrated a decrease in the retinal VD of the SCP, DCP, ONH, and the CC. Quantitative analysis of retinal perfusion using OCTA may therefore help in the diagnosis and monitoring of HZ. Further studies must show to what extent this may be an indication of VZV-related vasculopathy and whether OCTA data can be used as a biomarker in these patients in the future.
水痘带状疱疹病毒（VZV）血管病变可发生于带状疱疹（HZ）患者。我们的目的是通过光学相干断层扫描血管造影（OCTA）评估三叉神经带状疱疹患者的视网膜微血管密度（VD）。本研究纳入了24例HZ患者的48只眼以及24例年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者的48只眼。所有参与者均使用配备AngioVue的RTVue XR Avanti进行OCTA检查。提取并分析了浅表毛细血管丛（SCP）、深层毛细血管丛（DCP）和脉络膜毛细血管（CC）的黄斑3×3 mm OCT血管造影的VD数据以及视神经乳头（ONH）的VD数据。与健康对照相比，HZ患者SCP、DCP和CC中的VD显著降低（<0.05）。同样，ONH的盘内区域也有明显减少。黄斑无血管区（FAZ）面积和中心视网膜厚度无统计学上的明显减少。在本研究中，HZ患者的SCP、DCP、ONH和CC的视网膜VD均降低。因此，使用OCTA对视网膜灌注进行定量分析可能有助于HZ的诊断和监测。进一步的研究必须表明这在多大程度上可能是VZV相关血管病变的一个指标，以及OCTA数据未来是否可作为这些患者的生物标志物。
