SPECTRAL DOMAIN OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY FINDINGS IN COATS DISEASE

To evaluate microstructural retinal abnormalities on spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) imaging of eyes with Coats disease.

This is a multicenter, retrospective study in which SD-OCT images of patients with treatment-naive Coats disease were correlated with clinical examination and visual acuity and, when available, followed longitudinally over time.

Macular SD-OCT of 27 eyes with Coats disease revealed intraretinal edema (59%), intraretinal exudates (67%), subretinal fluid (37%), subretinal exudate (48%), ellipsoid zone disruption (52%), external limiting membrane disruption (41%), and subfoveal nodule (26%). All these microstructural abnormalities correlated with worse baseline and final visual acuities (P < 0.05) on univariate analysis, except for intraretinal edema which exhibited a nonstatistically significant trend toward worse baseline visual acuity (P = 0.16). Within stage 2b eyes, external limiting membrane disruption and subretinal nodule on SD-OCT were associated with worse baseline visual acuity (P = 0.02 for both), and there was a trend toward worse final visual acuity with external limiting membrane disruption and subretinal nodule (P = 0.17 for both) and worse baseline (P = 0.08) and final (P = 0.13) visual acuities with ellipsoid zone disruption. No microstructural abnormalities were noted on OCT of fellow eyes.

Spectral domain OCT can identify microstructural abnormalities in Coats disease that are associated on univariate analysis with worse baseline visual acuity and visual prognosis. Further larger studies are necessary.