Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 25, 2025
Retinal Vascular Reactivity as Assessed by Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography
Published on: March 26, 2020
Long-Term Retinal Vascular Changes in Age-Related Macular Degeneration Measured Using Optical Coherence Tomography
Background And Objective:
To determine if age-related macular degeneration (AMD) status affects longitudinal retinal vessel changes.
Patients And Methods:
Retrospective, cohort study of 125 eyes (75 patients) with AMD, following retinal vessel density (VD) and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) measurements using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) over 24 months.
Results:
FAZ area (P < .001) and perimeter (P < .001) increased over 2 years, with no difference between nonexudative and exudative AMD (P = .134-.976). Eyes with geographic atrophy (GA) showed greater progressive VD loss (P = .023-.038), and greater increase in FAZ area (P = .044) and perimeter (P = .040) compared to eyes without GA. Neither baseline nor 2-year change in vascular parameters were associated with choroidal neovascularization (CNV) or GA incidence in nonexudative AMD, or anti-VEGF injection frequency in exudative AMD (P = .070-.952).
Conclusion:
AMD eyes with GA undergo more rapid loss of retinal vessel density and FAZ enlargement over 2 years, suggesting a relationship between the retinal vasculature and AMD pathophysiology. [.
