Open Journal of Ophthalmology, 2018, 8, 133-139
http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojoph
ISSN Online: 2165-7416
ISSN Print: 2165-7408
DOI: 10.4236/ojoph.2018.83017 Jul. 25, 2018 133 Open Journal of Ophthalmology
Quantitative Assessment of Foveal Avascular
Zone in Patients with Early and Intermediate
Nonexudative Age-Related Macular
Degeneration Using Optical Coherence
Tomography-Angiography
Vladimir Stavrev, Nelly Sivkova, Desislava Koleva-Georgieva
Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Plovdiv, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Abstract
Optical coherence tomography-angiography (OCT-A) is a relatively new
non-invasive imaging technique which provides three-dimensional visualiza-
tion of the retinal and choroidal microvasculature. Recently, OCT-A is widely
used in the diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Purpose:
To compare 3 quantitative indexes of foveal avascular zone (FAZ)—area (A),
perimeter (Pm), and circularity (C) in patients with early and intermediate
nonexudative AMD and healthy subjects using OCT-A. Methods: Eighty-nine
patients with nonexudative AMD (n = 89 eyes) were enrolled in the study.
They were compared with sex- and age-matched control group of 66 healthy
subjects (n = 66 eyes). The patients with nonexudative AMD were divided in-
to 2 subgroups—early AMD (n = 42 eyes) and intermediate AMD (n = 47
eyes). All participants underwent OCT-A (3 × 3 mm scans, Cirrus HD-OCT,
Angioplex, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA). Results: There was no statistically
significant difference in all 3 assessed indexes between the early AMD sub-
group and the control group (A − P = 0.139; Pm − P = 0.230; and C − P =
0.191). There was also no statistically significant difference in all 3 assessed
indexes between the intermediate AMD subgroup and the control group (A −
P = 0.106, Pm − P = 0.124, and C − P = 0.102, respectively). Conclusions:
According to our results from the assessment of FAZ in patients with early
and intermediate AMD, we hypothesize that macular perfusion remains fairly
unchanged in the nonexudative stages of the disease. OCT-A is a reliable tech-
nique for visualizing and quantifying FAZ in patients with nonexudative
AMD.
How to cite this paper: Stavrev, V., Siv-
kova, N. and Koleva-Georgieva, D. (2018)
Quantitative Assessment of Foveal Avascu-
lar Zone in Patients with Early and Inter-
mediate Nonexudative Age-Related Macu-
lar Degeneration Using Optical Coherence
Tomography-Angiography. Open Journal
of Ophthalmology, 8, 133-139.
https://doi.org/10.4236/ojoph.2018.83017
Received: May 29, 2018
Accepted: July 22, 2018
Published: July 25, 2018
Copyright © 2018 by authors and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access