Optical Coherence Angiographic Demonstration of Retinal Changes From Chronic Optic Neuropathies

ABSTRACT

Glaucoma causes a decrease in peripapillary perfused capillary density on optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography. However, other chronic optic neuropathies have not been explored with OCT angiography to see if these changes were specific to glaucoma. The authors evaluated OCT angiography in 10 patients who suffered various kinds of chronic optic neuropathies, including optic neuritis and ischaemic optic neuropathy, and found that all optic neuropathies showed a decrease in peripapillary vessel density on OCT angiography, regardless of the aetiology of the optic neuropathy. The peripapillary vessel loss on OCT angiography correlated well with the areas of retinal nerve fibre layer thinning seen on OCT.

KEYWORDS:

• OCT angiography
• optic neuropathy
• peripapillary capillaries

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by an unrestricted grant to the Department of Ophthalmology by Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., New York, New York, USA.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by an unrestricted grant to the Department of Ophthalmology by Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., New York, New York, USA.