Analysis of Optical Coherence Tomography in Acute versus Chronic Central Serous Chorioretinopathy

Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) is a common retinal disease that causes vision loss worldwide. Studying the imaging characteristics of CSC is helpful for the differential diagnosis of diseases. This study analyzed the differences between acute and chronic CSC and provide related information.

The aim of this study was to describe the optical coherence tomography features in patients with acute and chronic CSC.

Sixty-two eyes of 56 patients with CSC were included in the study. Optical coherence tomography was performed to observe the image features. The photoreceptor outer-segment (PROS) thickness above the pigment epithelium detachment (PED) coinciding with the leakage point in fundus fluorescein angiography was measured and compared with the mean PROS thickness outside the PED in acute cases. The SPSS 23.0 software (IBM Co., Chicago, IL) was used for statistical analysis.

Of our 56 patients (62 eyes), 41 (73.21%) were male and 15 (26.79%) were female. There were 53 eyes (85.48%) with acute CSC and 9 eyes (14.52%) with chronic CSC. Besides other common features, the new feature of a high-reflection band in the outer nuclear layer was found to be limited to the macular detachment area. In acute cases, the mean PROS thickness above the retinal pigment epithelium layer protuberance coinciding with the leakage point was 22.7 ± 8.8 μm, which was less than the mean PROS thickness outside the PED at 64.3 ± 21.3 μm (P ≤ .001).

The high-reflection band in the outer nuclear layer within the serous neurosensory detachment limited to the macular area was a new finding in CSC patients. This finding can be used as an imaging feature to aid in the diagnosis of CSC.