Comparison of subfoveal choroidal thickness in eyes with CRVO and BRVO

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) in eyes with macular edema (ME) secondary to retinal vein occlusion(RVO), and to investigate the short term response after a single intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) injection. What is more, to compare SFCT and SFCT change between central RVO (CRVO) and branch RVO (BRVO). METHODS: In the retrospective study, we had collected 36-six treatment-naïve patients with unilateral ME secondary to RVO (including 19 CRVO and 17 BRVO). All patients had received IVR injection after newly diagnosed. The SFCT was measured at the onset and after 2 weeks of IVR injection. Paired t test was performed to compare the SFCT of RVO eyes and fellow eyes, as well as the SFCT of pre-injection and post-injection. In further, independent t test was used to compare SFCT and SFCT change between CRVO eyes and BRVO eyes. RESULTS: The mean SFCT at the onset was 326.03 ± 30.86 μm in CRVO eyes, which was significantly thicker than that in contralateral fellow eyes (p < 0.01, paired t test), and reduced to 294.15 ± 30.83 μm rapidly after 2 weeks of IVR injection (p < 0.01, paired t test). Similarly, the SFCT in BRVO eyes was significantly thicker than that in contralateral eyes at the onset, and decreased significantly after IVR injection. However, our findings showed that there was no statistically significant difference in SFCT and SFCT reduction after IVR injection between CRVO eyes and BRVO eyes. CONCLUSIONS: The SFCT in eyes with ME secondary to CRVO and BRVO was significantly thicker than that in fellow eyes, and decreased significantly within a short time in response to a single IVR injection. In further, the study showed that SFCT and SFCT change had no correlation with RVO subtypes.