Prediction of Retinal Ischemia in Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion: Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Study

To investigate the relationship between spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) measurements and retinal nonperfusion in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO).

Forty-one patients with BRVO who had recovered from macular edema and had been followed for ≥2 years were included via retrospective, medical record review. Patients were divided into two groups that included 20 nonischemic eyes and 21 ischemic eyes, and 41 fellow control eyes were also included. Using SD-OCT, we measured the thickness of the macular layer, ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GC-IPL), and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in both the BRVO-affected and fellow eyes. The eyes were subdivided into affected and nonaffected areas of BRVO. Each area of normal fellow eyes and BRVO eyes was compared between the two groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the diagnostic ability of the OCT measurements for ischemic BRVO.

The macula, the GC-IPL, and RNFL in the BRVO-affected area were significantly thinner compared to those of the fellow eyes in the two groups. The thickness of macula, GC-IPL, and RNFL in the ischemic BRVO group was also significantly less than in the nonischemic BRVO group. In the ROC curve analysis of a total of 82 eyes, the area under the ROC curve of the RNFL on the ischemic BRVO was the highest at 0.906, followed by the GC-IPL (0.824) and the macula (0.768).

The thickness of macula, GC-IPL, and RNFL in the ischemic BRVO group was significantly reduced compared to the nonischemic BRVO group, especially in the RNFL.