Iris Vascular Characteristics Changes in Non-Infectious Uveitis: A Wide-Field Swept-Source Anterior Segment Optical...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Imaging
• Uveitis Research

Background:

• Non-infectious uveitis (NIU) is an inflammatory eye condition.
• Assessing disease activity and severity in NIU can be challenging.
• Iris vascular changes are associated with ocular inflammation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively compare iris vascular characteristics in active NIU, inactive NIU, and healthy controls.
• To identify reliable imaging biomarkers for monitoring NIU using wide-field SS-AS-OCTA.
• To correlate imaging findings with clinical measures of inflammation.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional observational study included 87 eyes from 48 participants (active NIU, inactive NIU, healthy controls).
• Wide-field swept-source anterior segment optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-AS-OCTA) was used to analyze iris vasculature.
• Iris vessel area density (VAD) and vessel length density (VLD) were measured in six iris regions.

Main Results:

• Active NIU eyes showed significantly higher VAD and VLD compared to inactive NIU and healthy controls across most regions.
• Temporal full range VAD positively correlated with anterior chamber cell grade in active NIU eyes.
• SS-AS-OCTA demonstrated significant iris vascular alterations in active NIU.

Conclusions:

• Wide-field SS-AS-OCTA is effective in detecting iris vascular changes associated with active NIU.
• Iris VAD and VLD are valuable objective metrics for assessing NIU activity.
• Temporal iris VAD is a promising imaging biomarker for monitoring NIU severity and guiding treatment.