Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Retinal optical coherence tomography angiography findings of acute anterior uveitis

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Ophthalmology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the changes in retinal microvasculature in eyes with anterior uveitis (AU) using optical coherence tomography angiography.

Methods

Foveal avascular zone (FAZ) of superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP), vessel density (VD) of SCP, DCP, and choriocapillaris, and central macular thickness (CMT) and central foveal thickness (CFT) were calculated from 34 healthy and 41 uveitic eyes. The parameters were compared between the two groups.

Results

The deep FAZ was significantly smaller in the eyes with AU during the attack than after recovery and the control group (p = 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively). The VD in deep capillary plexus (DCP) in eyes with AU during the attack was significantly higher than the control group (p = 0.048). The VD in the foveal sector of DCP in eyes with AU during the attack and after recovery was significantly higher than the control group (p = 0.001 and p = 0.031, respectively). There was no significant difference regarding CMT, CFT, VDs of each segment and each sector, and superficial and deep FAZ between eyes with first uveitis attack and those with recurrent uveitis during the attack and after recovery (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

The results of this study show that there is a reduction in the FAZ and an increase in the VD of the DCP of the retina during active AU, and these findings are reversible. Acute AU may affect the macular microvasculature, which is usually temporary, especially in the DCP.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

References:

  1. Rothova A, Suttorp-van Schulten M, Treffers WF, Kijlstra A (1996) Causes and frequency of blindness in patients with intraocular inflammatory disease. Br J Ophthalmol 80:332–336

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Pivetti-Pezzi P, Accorinti M, La Cava M, Gisoldi RAC, Abdulaziz MA (1996) Endogenous uveitis: an analysis of 1,417 cases. Ophthalmologica 210:234–238

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Liu T, Bi H, Wang X, Gao Y, Wang G, Ma W (2015) Macular abnormalities in Chinese patients with uveitis. Optom Vis Sci 92:858–862

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Durrani O, Tehrani N, Marr J, Moradi P, Stavrou P, Murray P (2004) Degree, duration, and causes of visual loss in uveitis. Br J Ophthalmol 88:1159–1162

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Freeman G (2001) Cystoid macular oedema in uveitis: an unsolved problem. Eye 15:12–17

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Antcliff RJ, Stanford MR, Chauhan DS, Graham EM, Spalton DJ, Shilling JS, Marshall J (2000) Comparison between optical coherence tomography and fundus fluorescein angiography for the detection of cystoid macular edema in patients with uveitis. Ophthalmology 107:593–599

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Feldtkeller E, Khan M, van der Heijde D, van der Linden S, Braun J (2003) Age at disease onset and diagnosis delay in HLA-B27 negative vs. positive patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Rheumatol Int 23:61–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Monnet D, Breban M, Hudry C, Dougados M, Brézin AP (2004) Ophthalmic findings and frequency of extraocular manifestations in patients with HLA-B27 uveitis: a study of 175 cases. Ophthalmology 111:802–809

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gabriel M, Kruger R, Shams-Mafi F, Hermann B, Zabihian B, Schmetterer L, Drexler W, Binder S, Esmaeelpour M (2017) Mapping retinal and choroidal thickness in unilateral nongranulomatous acute anterior uveitis using three-dimensional 1060-nm optical coherence tomography. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 58:4778–4783

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Garcia-Diaz M, Mira M, Nevado L, Galvan A, Berenguer A, Bureo JC (1995) Retinal vasculitis associated with Crohn’s disease. Postgrad Med J 71:170–172

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Keyser BJ, Hass AN (1994) Retinal vascular disease in ulcerative colitis. Am J Ophthalmol 118:395–396

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Khairallah M, Abroug N, Khochtali S, Mahmoud A, Jelliti B, Coscas G, Lupidi M, Kahloun R, Yahia SB (2017) Optical coherence tomography angiography in patients with Behçet uveitis. Retina 37:1678–1691

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Spaide RF, Klancnik JM, Cooney MJ (2015) Retinal vascular layers imaged by fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography angiography. JAMA ophthalmology 133:45–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Chalam K, Sambhav K (2016) Optical coherence tomography angiography in retinal diseases. J Ophthalmic Vis Res 11:84

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. De Carlo TE, Romano A, Waheed NK, Duker JS (2015) A review of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). International journal of retina and vitreous 1:5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Group SoUNW (2005) Standardization of uveitis nomenclature for reporting clinical data. Results of the First International Workshop. Am J Ophthalmol 140:509–516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Karampelas M, Sim DA, Chu C, Carreno E, Keane PA, Zarranz-Ventura J, Westcott M, Lee RW, Pavesio CE (2015) Quantitative analysis of peripheral vasculitis, ischemia, and vascular leakage in uveitis using ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography. Am J Ophthalmol 159:1161–1168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Graham E, Stanford M, Shilling J, Sanders M (1987) Neovascularisation associated with posterior uveitis. Br J Ophthalmol 71:826–833

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Howes EL, Cruse VK (1978) The structural basis of altered vascular permeability following intraocular inflammation. Arch Ophthalmol 96:1668–1676

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Qu Y, Zhao C, Pei M, Liang A, Gao F, Zhang M (2020) Anterior segment inflammation in pediatric uveitis is associated with reduced retinal vascular density as quantified by optical coherence tomography angiography. Ocular Immunol Inflamm 25:1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/09273948.2020.1803923

  21. Rotsos TG, Moschos MM (2008) Cystoid macular edema. Clinical Ophthalmol (Auckland, NZ) 2:919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Chi Y, Guo C, Peng Y, Qiao L, Yang L (2015) A prospective, observational study on the application of ultra-wide-field angiography in the evaluation and management of patients with anterior uveitis. Plos one 10:e0122749

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Coscas F, Glacet-Bernard A, Miere A, Caillaux V, Uzzan J, Lupidi M, Coscas G, Souied EH (2016) Optical coherence tomography angiography in retinal vein occlusion: evaluation of superficial and deep capillary plexa. Am J Ophthalmol 161:160–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Kornblau IS, El-Annan JF (2019) Adverse reactions to fluorescein angiography: a comprehensive review of the literature. Surv Ophthalmol 64:679–693

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Cerquaglia A, Lupidi M, Fiore T, Iaccheri B, Perri P, Cagini C (2017) Deep inside multifocal choroiditis: an optical coherence tomography angiography approach. Int Ophthalmol 37:1047–1051

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Matsunaga D, Yi J, Puliafito CA, Kashani AH (2014) OCT angiography in healthy human subjects. Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina 45:510–515

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kim AY, Rodger DC, Shahidzadeh A, Chu Z, Koulisis N, Burkemper B, Jiang X, Pepple KL, Wang RK, Puliafito CA (2016) Quantifying retinal microvascular changes in uveitis using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography angiography. Am J Ophthalmol 171:101–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Aksoy FE, Basarir B, Altan C, Pasaoglu I, İnal A, Tunç U, Ocak OB, Karabulut GO (2020) Retinal microvasculature in the remission period of Behcet’s uveitis. Photodiagnosis and photodynamic therapy 29:101646

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Pichi F, Sarraf D, Arepalli S, Lowder CY, Cunningham ET Jr, Neri P, Albini TA, Gupta V, Baynes K, Srivastava SK (2017) The application of optical coherence tomography angiography in uveitis and inflammatory eye diseases. Prog Retin Eye Res 59:178–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Pichi F, Sarraf D, Morara M, Mazumdar S, Neri P, Gupta V (2017) Pearls and pitfalls of optical coherence tomography angiography in the multimodal evaluation of uveitis. J Ophthalmic Inflamm Infect 7:1–12

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Tian M, Tappeiner C, Zinkernagel MS, Huf W, Wolf S, Munk MR (2019) Evaluation of vascular changes in intermediate uveitis and retinal vasculitis using swept-source wide-field optical coherence tomography angiography. Br J Ophthalmol 103:1289–1295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Waizel M, Todorova MG, Terrada C, LeHoang P, Massamba N, Bodaghi B (2018) Superficial and deep retinal foveal avascular zone OCTA findings of non-infectious anterior and posterior uveitis. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 256:1977–1984

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Basarir B, Celik U, Altan C, Celik NB (2018) Choroidal thickness changes determined by EDI-OCT on acute anterior uveitis in patients with HLA-B27-positive ankylosing spondylitis. Int Ophthalmol 38:307–312

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Park SH, Cho H, Hwang SJ, Jeon B, Seong M, Yeom H, Kang MH, Lim HW, Shin YU (2020) Changes in the retinal microvasculature measured using optical coherence tomography angiography according to age. J Clin Med 9:883

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Yu J, Gu R, Zong Y, Xu H, Wang X, Sun X, Jiang C, Xie B, Jia Y, Huang D (2016) Relationship between retinal perfusion and retinal thickness in healthy subjects: an optical coherence tomography angiography study. Investigative Ophthalmol Visual Sci 57:204–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Zhang Z, Huang X, Meng X, Chen T, Gu Y, Wu Y, Wu Z (2017) In vivo assessment of macula in eyes of healthy children 8 to 16 years old using optical coherence tomography angiography. Sci Rep 7:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Assoc. Prof. Ahmet Kirgiz for his comments and suggestions.

Funding

No financial support was received.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Health Sciences Turkey, Beyoglu Eye Training and Research Hospital, Bereketzade Street Number: 2, Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gulay Yalcinkaya, Cigdem Altan, Berna Basarir & Ihsan Cakir

Authors
  1. Gulay Yalcinkaya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cigdem Altan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Berna Basarir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ihsan Cakir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Gulay Yalcinkaya, and Ihsan Cakir. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Gulay Yalcinkaya, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gulay Yalcinkaya.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethical approval was obtained through the University of Health Sciences Turkey Ethics Committee (12/5 on July 24, 2020).

Consent to participate

Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent for publication

Patients signed informed consent regarding publishing their data.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yalcinkaya, G., Altan, C., Basarir, B. et al. Retinal optical coherence tomography angiography findings of acute anterior uveitis. Int Ophthalmol 42, 1409–1418 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-02129-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-02129-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation