Morphology of retinal vessels in patients with optic nerve head drusen and optic disc edema

We quantitatively investigated the peripapillary vascular morphology in patients with optic nerve head drusen (ONHD) and optic disc edema (ODE).

Computer-based fundus analysis was used to investigate peripapillary vascular morphology, including length, branching, and diameter of arteries and veins calibrated by optical coherence tomography.

Patients with ONHD showed significantly larger diameters of arteries without branching (P = 0.05), and arteries after primary/before secondary branching (P = 0.04) and secondary venous branching started closer to the optic disc (P = 0.03) compared to healthy controls. The ODE patients had significantly reduced number of small peripapillary veins and larger number of veins without branching compared to ONHD and controls (P = 0.02). Anomalous branching with arterial and venous trifurcation presented in the ODE and ONHD groups, with significant higher prevalence in ODE patients for venous trifurcations compared to ONHD and controls (P = 0.02).

The diameter of vessels in ONHD patients were significantly larger in arteries without branching (P = 0.05), after primary branching (P = 0.04), and venous branching closer to the disc area (P = 0.03) compared to controls. The ODE patients demonstrated widening of the small peripapillary veins measured by a significantly larger number of veins without branching (P = 0.001 and P = 0.02, compared to controls and ONHD, respectively) and less small veins (P = 0.001 and P = 0.04, compared to controls and ONHD, respectively).