Assessment of Retinal Microvasculature and Choroidal Vascularity After Intra-arterial Chemotherapy for Retinoblastoma.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate changes in retinal microvascular density and choroidal vascularity in patients with retinoblastoma (RB) after intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC). DESIGN: Retrospective clinical cohort study. METHODS: This study included 12 unilateral RB eyes treated with IAC (RB tumor), 12 contralateral normal eyes (RB fellow), and 12 healthy controls. The macular retinal thickness and retinal microvascular structure, including the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, macular and peripapillary superficial vessel density (SVD), and deep vessel density (DVD), were measured by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). The choroidal thickness (ChT) and choroidal vascularity, including total choroidal area (TCA), luminal area (LA), stromal area (SA), and choroidal vascularity index (CVI), were measured by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). A comparison among the 3 groups was conducted, and the correlations among the parameters were analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 3 cohorts, the foveal retinal thickness, SVD, DVD, ChT, TCA, LA, SA, and CVI were significantly lower in RB tumor compared to RB fellow and the control eyes (all P < .01). There were no significant differences in the parameters between the contralateral and control eyes. The correlation analyses indicated a significant negative correlation between the total melphalan dose and foveal and parafoveal DVD, ChT, and LA. CONCLUSIONS: The retinal microvascular density and choroidal vascularity were lower in unilateral RB treated with IAC, and seemed to be related to the total melphalan dose. There were no measurable changes in the contralateral eyes.