Prognostic factors for visual recovery in idiopathic rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: a prospective study of 90 patients.

AIM: To determine the preoperative clinical and tomographic factors involved in the postoperative visual prognosis of macula-off rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. METHODS: We conducted a prospective analytical study of 90 eyes of 90 patients who suffered from macula-off rhegmatogenous retinal detachment and were treated in department "A" of "Hedi Raies Institute of Ophthalmology", Tunis. All the patients were examined prior and after the operation, with a thorough interrogation and complete ophthalmological examination. Also, we continued assessing their status for 6 months. We looked for the clinical factors predictive of postoperative visual recovery. The data collected was stored using Excel software and analyzed using SPSS version 18 for Windows (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). For all statistical tests, the significance level was set at p=0.05. RESULTS: The mean preoperative visual acuity (VA) was 1.73 +/- 0.34 LogMAR. It was significantly correlated with management delay (p<0.001). Postoperative VA was 0.61 +/- 0.43 LogMAR. The various pre-operative clinical risk factors for poor final visual recovery (VA<5/10) were: preoperative VA ≥ 2 LogMAR, management delay > 15 days (p<0.01), proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) stage C or greater (p=0.01), and number of detached retinal quadrants > 2 (p=0.05). Furthermore, we have found that the preoperative tomographic risk factors for poor visual recovery were: height of sub retinal fluid > 760µm (p < 0.001), disruption of the external limiting membrane and/or ellipsoid zone (p < 0.001), presence of cavitations in the external and/or internal nuclear layer (p = 0.002), and finally the absence of a thickening of the photoreceptor outer segments (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Predictive preoperative clinical factors in macula off RRD are mainly preoperative visual acuity, the management delay, number of quadrants reached and PVR stage. Mastering these factors builds a better understanding of the functional recovery after macula-off retinal detachment and helps advise the patients who will consequently be more involved in the management of this serious disease. Spectral domain OCT allows detection of specific microscopic macular changes. These anomalies could be predictive of final postoperative visual outcome.

Optical coherence tomography angiography vessel density parameters in primary open-angle glaucoma.

BACKGROUND: Many studies suggest the existence of an alteration of the retinal hemoperfusion in primary open-angle glaucoma. The OCT-A is a novel technique that allows to provide information on retinal microcirculation in a non-invasive way, thus it represents a possible imaging target for the early diagnosis and follow-up of glaucoma. The aim of our work is to evaluate the contribution of vascular parameters provided by OCT-A and their diagnostic abilities in the different stages of primary open-angle glaucoma. METHOD: This is a prospective cross-sectional study involving 200 eyes of control subjects and 250 eyes of glaucomatous subjects divided into early glaucoma, moderate glaucoma and advanced glaucoma subgroups. They were assessed for MD, LV by visual field, RNFL and GCC thickness by SS-OCT papillary and macular vascular densities by SS-OCT A. RESULTS: OCT-A vessel densities determined in the optic nerve head, in the peripapillary and in the macular regions were significantly lower in glaucomatous eyes. Among the vascular parameters studied the whole image vascular density showed the best diagnostic ability in the discrimination between glaucomatous eyes and healthy eyes with an AUC of 0.949. Nevertheless, the diagnostic ability of vascular parameters remains lower than of the structural parameters RNFL (AUC: 0.981). A significant correlation was found between structural, functional and vascular parameters with r < 0.05. The quadratic non-linear model defines better the relationship between structural, vascular and functional damage in glaucoma. CONCLUSION: The OCT-A plays an important role in the early diagnosis and follow-up of PAOG. It also contributes to the understanding of some aspects of the vascular role in glaucoma.

Contribution of optical coherence tomography angiography OCT-A in diabetic maculopathy.

INTRODUCTION: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) increases the risk of blindness by 25 times. Advanced researchs are justified for better management, leading to the role of Optical Coherence Tomography-Angiography (OCT-A), a new non-invasive imaging technique exploring retinal vascularization.Our purpose is to identify microvascular macular anomalies of DR on OCT-A with qualitative and quantitative evaluation of their impact on retinal vascularization. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study where 120 eyes of 66 diabetic patients were enrolled. All patients were diabetic and went through OCT-A imaging. RESULTS: Microanevrysms were identified in both superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP) where they were more frequently visualized. Macular edema was present in 16,7% of cases in the SCP, and in 30% in DCP. Edema spaces were more frequently present in DCP (p < 0,05). Capillary nonperfusion areas were identified in 82,5% of cases in SCP and in 60% of cases in DCP. The main peri-foveal vascular density was 18,95 ± 5,37%. The main surface of foveal avascular zone (FAZ) in the SCP was 462,52 µm2 and was 555,04 ± 329,11 µm2 in the DCP where it was larger. CONCLUSION: OCT-A is a modern imaging tool that could be used for the diagnosis and monitoring of DR as well as the understanding of its pathophysiology.