Impact of catheter ablation procedure on optical coherence tomography angiography findings in patients with ventricular arrhythmia

OBJECTIVE: Catheter ablation procedure may cause retinal complications associated with the risk of thromboembolism. We aimed to evaluate retina and optic disc microvascularity with optical coherence tomography angiography before and after the catheter ablation process in patients with ventricular arrhythmia. METHODS: A total of 40 eyes of 21 ventricular arrhythmia patients were included in this cross-sectional study. Demographic characteristics and ophthalmic examination findings of patients were recorded. optical coherence tomography angiography measurements were evaluated before (group 1) and after (group 2) catheter ablation. Optical coherence tomography angiography was applied to all eyes with 6×6 mm sections for the macula and 4.5×4.5 mm sections for the optic nerve head. Foveal retinal thickness, peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, vessel density in different parts of the retina, and optic disc were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean age of ventricular arrhythmia patients was 53.48±13.02 years. In all, 13 (61.9%) of the patients were males and 8 (38.1%) were females. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of average, inferior, superior, and temporal retinal nerve fiber layer thicknesses, foveal avascular area, flow areas, superficial and deep vessel densities, and optic disc capillary densities of the optic disc. However, when compared with group 1, significantly lower values in foveal retinal thickness and higher values in nasal retinal nerve fiber layer thickness were observed in group 2 (248.42±20.50 vs. 247.20±20.44, p<0.001 and 94.22±18.43 vs. 96.12±20.18, p=0.044, respectively). CONCLUSION: Although foveal retinal thickness and nasal retinal nerve fiber layer thickness are affected in patients undergoing catheter ablation for ventricular arrhythmia, the stable retinal and optic disc vessel densities can be explained by the administration of effective anticoagulants during the procedure.