Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 17, 2025
Evaluation of Capillary and Other Vessel Contribution to Macular Perfusion Density Measured with Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography
Published on: February 18, 2022
FOVEAL AVASCULAR ZONE VOLUME: A New Index Based on Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Images
Qiuzhuo Xu1, Weiwei Zhang2, Hongjing Zhu2
1School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China ; and.
Purpose:
To propose a new clinical evaluation index, foveal avascular zone (FAZ) volume, and analyze its statistical significance.
Methods:
A semiautomatic method is proposed to measure the FAZ volume in optical coherence tomography angiography images as follows: The region of interest was flattened and annotated axially. The labeled pixels in the restored region of interest were counted as the FAZ volume. Linear regression and the independent samples t-test were performed for the statistical analysis.
Results:
Sixty-one normal, 64 high myopia, and 42 diabetic retinopathy eyes were imaged using optical coherence tomography angiography. For normal eyes, the FAZ volume correlates inversely with central macular thickness (superficial: P = 0.004; deep: P < 0.001) and positively with area (P < 0.001). For high myopia eyes, the deep plexus FAZ (P = 0.34) and total FAZ (P = 0.38) volumes show no significant difference, whereas the superficial plexus FAZ volume is significantly larger than control (P < 0.001). For diabetic retinopathy eyes, the superficial plexus FAZ (P = 0.001), deep plexus FAZ (P = 0.014), and total volumes (P = 0.002) are significantly larger than control.
Conclusion:
The FAZ volume is proposed for depicting the 3D structure of the FAZ. It shows greater sensitivity for vascular alteration that makes it meaningful for clinical analysis.
