Subclinical Alterations in Retinal Layers and Microvascular Structures with OCTA in ANCA-Associated Vasculitides

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Using OCTA, investigate the capillary network and retinal layers in granulomatosis with ANCA associated vasculitis (AAV) patients who did not manifest apparent ocular involvement and compare the findings with healthy subjects.

Method

The present study, which is designed as a prospective and case-control study, includes 22 AAV patients and 35 control participants. OCTA parameters were noted.

Results

In most of the regions, AMT, RNFL and GC-IPL thicknesses were significantly lower in the AAV group than in the control group. While the vascular indices were lower in the AAV group, except for the center 1 mm region, the FAZ parameters were similar between the two groups.

Conclusion

In AAV patients, subclinical changes in the retinal layers and superficial vascular plexus have been shown. In the future maybe a non-invasive method such as OCTA will become available in scoring systems for prognosis determination in AAV.

KEYWORDS:

• Birmingham vasculitis activity score
• perfusion density
• retinal capillary
• vasculitis
• vessel density
• Wegener disease

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

All procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of our institution’s research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.