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Updated: Mar 13, 2026
Evaluation of Capillary and Other Vessel Contribution to Macular Perfusion Density Measured with Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography
Published on: February 18, 2022
VOLUME-RENDERED ANGIOGRAPHIC AND STRUCTURAL OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY OF MACULAR TELANGIECTASIA TYPE 2
Richard F Spaide1, Mihoko Suzuki, Lawrence A Yannuzzi
1*Vitreous, Retina, Macula Consultants of New York, New York, New York; †The LuEster T. Mertz Retina Research Laboratory, New York, New York; and ‡Department of Ophthalmology, Fondation Asile des Aveugles, Jules-Gonin Eye Hospital, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Purpose:
To evaluate multimodal imaging including volume-rendered angiographic and structural optical coherence tomography of macular telangiectasia Type 2 (MacTel2) for right-angle vein complexes, macular cavitations, and signs of deeper retinal vascular invasion.
Methods:
Retrospective review of imaging performed in a community-based retinal referral center. The eyes were scanned using optical coherence tomography using split-spectrum amplitude-decorrelation techniques to derive flow information. These data were extracted and used to create volume-rendered images of the retinal vasculature with integrated structural information derived from the component optical coherence tomographic images.
Results:
There were 24 eyes of 16 patients who had a mean age of 61.8 years. Right-angle veins seemed in association with vascular proliferation external to the deep vascular plexus. The origin of a right-angle vein was surrounded by a stellate arrangement of radiating retinal vessels apparently caused by contraction of surrounding tissue in the temporal macula. Cavitations were found in the fovea and varied in size and configuration from one examination to the next. Many smaller cavitations, called microcavitations, were seen in the surrounding macula. Vascular invasion occurred into the subretinal space.
Conclusion:
There are contractile features of the tissue in the temporal macula and the number, size, and temporal variations in the cavitations have not been in not mentioned in previous published descriptions of MacTel2. Vascular invasion of deeper layers occurred in the temporal macula through the outer nuclear layer. Volume-rendered angiographic and structural optical coherence tomography offers unprecedented ability to examine the vascular interrelationships their associations with cavitations in the macula.
