The retinal foveal avascular zone as a systemic biomarker to evaluate inflammatory bowel disease control

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a systemic inflammatory disease and is classified as Crohn’s disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) depending on the extent of gastrointestinal tract involvement. IBD can be associated with extraintestinal findings, such as fever, weight loss, arthralgia, and mucocutaneous lesions, as well as hepatic, renal and ophthalmological involvement. Clinical parameters and colonoscopy are used to establish the criteria for controlled or non-controlled disease and subsequent definition of treatment. Our objective in the present study was to compare the area of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) in patients with a diagnosis of IBD during remission and active disease. METHODS: 144 eyes of 72 patients with IBD were evaluated via a complete ophthalmological exam. Fundus photography and optical coherence tomography/angiography (OCT/OCTA) were performed with a Topcon Triton. The macula and posterior pole were evaluated by binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy and fundus biomicroscopy. The area of the FAZ was determined via manual delimitation of superficial retinal vascular layers from OCTA with image6.net software. To establish disease activity, we considered the Mayo Score, fecal calprotectin levels, colonoscopy results and clinical parameters. All retinal parameters were evaluated in a blinded manner. Means were compared between groups using the Mann–Whitney test. RESULTS: The participants had a mean age of 42.26 years and included 28 males (38.88%) and 44 females (61.11%). Among the participants, 37 had a diagnosis of CD (51.38%), and 35 had a diagnosis of UC (48.61%). Twenty-five patients (34.72%) had active disease, and 47 (65.27%) were in remission. The area of the FAZ did not differ significantly between the CD and UC groups (p = 0.91 for the right eye and p = 0.76 for the left eye) but did differ significantly between the remission and active disease groups (p = 0.01 for the right eye and p = 0.02 for the left eye). DISCUSSION: Our study is the first to evaluate the area of the FAZ in patients with IBD via swept-source OCTA. The area of the FAZ did not differ significantly in either eye between the CD and UC groups. However, patients classified as having active disease according to clinical parameters and colonoscopy presented a significant decrease in the area of the FAZ compared with patients in remission. The area of the FAZ is an ophthalmological parameter that can be obtained non-invasively and is increased in ischemic diseases such as diabetic retinopathy. The FAZ may decrease due to vascular engorgement or increased systemic inflammation. This parameter can be used to help determine whether a patient is in remission or active IBD, thus potentially reducing the need for invasive exams during disease follow-up.