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Updated: Aug 28, 2025
Evaluation of Capillary and Other Vessel Contribution to Macular Perfusion Density Measured with Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography
Published on: February 18, 2022
Evaluation of the optic nerve head and macular vessel density in keratoconus patients using optical coherence
Sibel Zırtıloğlu1, Mustafa Suat Alikma2, Ozge Pinar Akarsu Acar1
1Department of Ophthalmology, 147005Istanbul Bakirkoy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Purpose:
Our study evaluated macular and optic disc vascular density (VD) changes in patients diagnosed with keratoconus, as compared with gender and age-matched healthy controls, in relation to the keratoconus stage.
Methods:
This comparative cross-sectional study included adult patients who received a diagnosis of keratoconus at the Cornea Clinic. All scans consisted of two 4.5 mm × 4.5 mm images of the optic disc area and 6 × 6 mm images of the macular area using optical coherence tomography angiography.
Results:
The study included 67 patients (26 women (38.8%) and 41 men (61.2%)) and 74 controls (31 women (41.9%) and 43 men (58.1%)). The mean ages of the keratoconus group and the control group were 30.0 ± 8.0 and 31.1 ± 7.5, respectively. Macular VD (whole, superficial, and deep) and peripapillary VD (whole) values were decreased statistically significant compared with the control group (p < 0.01 and p = 0.015, respectively). The keratoconus stage was negatively correlated with both the macular VD (p = 0.048, r = -0.314) and whole-peripapillary VD values (p = 0.03, r = -0.34).
Conclusion:
Keratoconus might affect the posterior and anterior segments due to similar etiologies, including diminished collagen quality. Therefore, examination of the posterior segment should be performed thoroughly in keratoconus patients.
