Detection of Retinal Microvascular Changes with Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Patients with Acute...

Acute leukemia often affects microcirculation perfusion. This study aimed to investigate retinal microvascular changes in patients with acute leukemia without retinopathy during clinical remission using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and to determine the correlation of these changes with systemic laboratory values.

Thirty-eight patients in remission from acute leukemia with no retinopathy (NLR group) and 36 age-matched healthy individuals (control group) were included in this cross-sectional study. OCTA parameters, including the central foveal thickness (CFT), foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, FAZ perimeter, acircularity index (AI), foveal density (FD300), and the vessel densities (VDs) of the superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), and choriocapillaris were analyzed in a 6 × 6 mm² macular scan. Correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to identify potential systemic characteristics associated with these OCTA metrics.

AI (P = 0.034) and FD300 (P < 0.001) differed significantly between the NLR and control groups. The VD of SCP in the parafovea (P = 0.001) and of DCP in both the parafovea (P = 0.011) and perifovea (P = 0.001) were significantly lower in the NLR group than in the control group. In a multiple linear regression analysis, the reduced VD of the perifoveal DCP was significantly correlated with the increased international normalized ratio (standardized beta [STD β] = - 0.356; P = 0.047).

Macular microvascular changes can be observed during remission from acute leukemia antecedent to clinically visible retinal lesions. Hematological disturbances may be associated with microvascular impairments in preclinical leukemic retinopathy.