Vascular density of optic nerve head in diabetic retinopathy using optical coherence tomography angiography

PURPOSE: To measure optic nerve head (ONH) blood perfusion using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) at various stages of diabetic retinopathy (DR). METHODS: One hundred seventy six eyes of 94 patients included in this retrospective single-centre cross-sectional study. The subjects were studied in normal, no diabetic retinopathy (NDR), non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and proliferative retinopathy (PDR) groups. The eyes were subjected to AngioDisc ONH imaging using OCTA for papillary (Disc) and peripapillary (RPC) vascular density (VD) evaluation. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 56.08 ± 8.87 years and 34 (36.2 percent) were male. With increased DR severity, a statistically significant decrease in peripapillary VD was found. The study showed that only VD of the whole RPC (W-RPC) could be a valid biomarker in the staging assessment. VD of RPC, in all subsections, was considerably different from normal cases in the PDR group. Visual acuity was correlated with whole image ONH VD. The duration of DM, FBS, hyperlipidemia and DME had no effect on the ONH perfusion. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that only the W-RPC VD could be a reasonable marker in the staging assessment. VDs assessed by OCTA can be useful for assessing and tracking early ONH changes in DR patients.