CHORIOCAPILLARIS FEATURES IN FELLOW EYES OF THICK AND THIN POLYPOIDAL CHOROIDAL VASCULOPATHY

To analyze features of the choriocapillaris in fellow eyes with thick and thin polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).

We retrospectively reviewed optical coherence tomography and optical coherence tomography-angiography in the fellow eyes of patients with unilateral PCV. Patients were categorized into thick and thin PCV groups based on a subfoveal choroidal thickness of 250 µ m. The choriocapillaris characteristics of the fellow eyes were compared with the controls.

We classified 59, 53, and 63 patients into thick PCV, thin PCV, and control groups, respectively. No difference was found in the total number of flow voids among the three groups. The total flow void density (%) differed among the thick PCV group (25.64 ± 8.57), thin PCV group (29.72 ± 7.61), and control group (30.35 ± 6.78) ( P < 0.001). The number and density of large-sized (>400 µ m 2 ) flow voids also differed among the thick PCV group (2,177.63 ± 887.10, 20.49 ± 11.31%), thin PCV group (2,605.92 ± 806.05, 25.58 ± 10.48%), and control group (2,807.14 ± 789.49, 25.93 ± 9.38%) ( P < 0.001, 0.006).

In PCV, the flow void characteristics of the choriocapillaris in the fellow eyes differed between the thick and thin PCV groups. This finding suggests that the conditions of the choroid and choriocapillaris may vary between thick and thin PCV.