(1) Purpose: To measure the change in vessel density (VD) and the flow area (FA) on the retina of eyes with primary angle-closure diseases (PACD), including primary angle-closure suspect (PACS), primary angle-closure (PAC), acute primary angle-closure (APAC) and primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG). (2) Methods: Patients with PACD were prospectively enrolled in this study. All participants underwent thorough ophthalmic examinations. The mean defect (MD), retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness, VD measurement, and blood FA were measured. (3) Results: A total of 147 eyes from 121 subjects were included in this study. The VD of the nerve head layer was significantly lower in PACG and APAC (all p < 0.001). APAC and PACG had lower FA of all layers, except for the choroid layer (p < 0.05). The macular VD of the whole image and blood FA in the superficial layer was significantly lower in PACG (all p < 0.001). The MD, RNFL, and GCC thickness demonstrated a strong correlation with whole image VD in the superficial layer (p < 0.001), while the inside disc VD did not show a significant correlation with MD, RNFL, and GCC thickness (p > 0.05). (4) Conclusions: There was a significant decrease in the VD and FA on the optic disc as well as the VD and FA of the superficial layer in the macular area in APAC and PACG. The changes in VD and FA are correlated with the severity of the glaucomatous structural damage and functional impairment.
Précis: The current study highlights distinct choroidal alterations in primary open angle (POAG) and primary angle closure (PACG) glaucomas, underscoring the potential of the Choroidal Vascularity Index (CVI) as a valuable indicator for understanding glaucoma pathogenesis. Purpose: To evaluate choroidal structural changes in patients with POAG and PACG and healthy controls utilizing the CVI and subfoveal choroidal thickness by enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography. Methods: This study was cross-sectional. A total of 171 eyes of 171 subjects, comprising 69 eyes with untreated POAG, 58 eyes with untreated PACG, and 44 healthy eyes, were enrolled in this study. Subfoveal choroidal thickness, luminal area (LA), stromal area (SA), and total choroidal area were measured on enhanced depth imaging–optical coherence tomography scans. The CVI parameter is calculated as the proportion of LA to the total choroidal area. Results: This study included 69 patients with POAG with a mean age of 51.4 ± 13.3 years, 58 patients with PACG with a mean age of 57.0 ± 7.3 years, and 44 healthy subjects with a mean age of 51.11 ± 10.7 years. The CVI in the POAG and PACG groups was significantly lower than that in the control group (P = 0.001 and P = 0.005, respectively); however, not significantly different between the two glaucoma groups (P = 1.000). POAG eyes had significantly lower LA than PACG and controls (P = 0.014 and P = 0.049, respectively), whereas PACG eyes had significantly greater SA than controls (P = 0.041). Conclusions: The CVI of POAG and PACG eyes was significantly lower than that of normal eyes. A reduced LA was observed mainly in eyes with POAG, and an increased SA was observed mainly in eyes with PACG. The role of the choroid may differ between POAG and PACG eyes.
9 February 2025 in Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology
Background: High myopia (HM) is a major risk factor for glaucoma. However, glaucomatous optic neuropathy is often undiagnosed owing to atypical structural alterations with axial elongation. Moreover, an algorithm to detect glaucoma in highly myopic eyes has not yet been reported.Methods: We recruited 2643 colour fundus photographs to train a ResNet‐50 network for discriminating eyes with highly myopic glaucoma (HMG) from HM or glaucoma alone. We employed a 10‐fold cross‐validation strategy to evaluate the model's performance and applicability across diverse patient groups. Multiple metrics were computed to gauge the model's diagnostic process. The diagnostic ability of the model was then juxtaposed with those made by ophthalmologists to determine concordance. The gradient‐weighted class activation maps were used for visual explanations.Results: Our model demonstrated an overall accuracy of 97.7% with an area under the curve of 98.6% (sensitivity, 91.2%; specificity, 98.0%) for the differential diagnosis among HM, glaucoma, HMG and normal controls. These metrics notably outperformed the diagnostic performances of two attending ophthalmologists, who achieved accuracies of 64.7% and 69.9%. The activation maps derived from the model suggested that the most discriminative lesions for diagnosing HMG were predominantly in the disc, peripapillary area and inferior region of the disc, which are often displayed with a tessellated fundus. These results were slightly different from the understanding of the attending ophthalmologists.Conclusions: Our proposed model demonstrates high efficacy and suggests specific features for distinguishing eyes with HMG, enabling potential clinical value in assisting the intricate diagnosis of this vision‐threatening disease..
Objective: This study aims to assess the prevalence and associated factors of depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms among patients undergoing ophthalmic consultation online during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic.Methods: We reviewed the data of patients who received online ophthalmic consultations during the lockdown period from February to August 2020, and an online survey was conducted among them. We collected the respondents' demographic data and their attitudes toward the online consultation, assessed the depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms and estimated associated factors by logistic regression analysis.Results: The online service provided 425 consultations during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Of these eligible subjects, 139 patients responded to an invitation to participant in the study (105/75.5% were females, and 40/28.8% were health care workers). More than half of the participants reported that they trusted and were satisfied with the online consultation (109/78.4% and 82/59%, respectively). Fifty-two (37.4%), 32 (23.0%), and 53 (38.1%) patients showed symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia, respectively. Depression was found to be significantly more common in health care workers (P = 0.019) and those who were basically satisfied with online consultation (P = 0.024). Anxiety was more common among participants who had used electronics for a long time (P = 0.038). Binary logistic regression showed health care work as a risk factor for depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR]: 2.424; 95% CI: 1.143–5.143; P = 0.021).Conclusion: Psychological distress is highly prevalent among patients who were involved in online consultation for ocular manifestations during the COVID-19 lockdown period. In the context of a major public health event, ophthalmologists should focus not only on ocular symptoms but also on the mental health of their patients, and appropriate psychological support should be given.
The purpose of this study was to identify the rate of parafoveal vessel density (VD) changes associated with the progression from non-diabetic retinopathy (NDR) to early stages of DR over a year. This longitudinal cohort study enrolled diabetic patients from the Guangzhou community in China. The patients with NDR at baseline were included and underwent comprehensive examinations at baseline and after 1 year. A commercial OCTA device (Triton Plus, Topcon, Tokyo, Japan) was employed to quantify the foveal VD in the superficial and deep capillary plexuses. The rates of change in parafoveal VD over time in the incident DR and NDR groups were compared after a year. A total of 448 NDR patients were included in the study. Among them, 382 (83.2%) were stable and 66 (14.4%) developed incident DR during the 1-year follow-up. The average parafoveal VD in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) reduced significantly more quickly in the incident DR group than in the NDR group (-1.95 ± 0.45%/year vs. -0.45 ± 0.19/year, P= 0.002). The VD reduction rate for the deep capillary plexus was not significantly different for the groups (P = 0.156). The incident DR group experienced a significantly faster reduction in parafoveal VD in the SCP compared with the stable group. Our findings further provide supporting evidence that parafoveal VD in the SCP may be used as an early indicator of the pre-clinical stages of DR.
Purpose: To report the prevalence, clinical characteristics and risk factors for paracentral acute middle maculopathy (PAMM) following acute primary angle closure (APAC) and acute primary angle closure glaucoma (APACG). Methods: This retrospective study consecutively recruited patients diagnosed with APAC or APACG. Based on the spectral domain optical coherence tomography characteristics, PAMM eyes were divided into three stages. Characteristics of different stages such as the time from symptoms to treatment (TST), retinal thickness and BCVA improvement were analyzed. The risk factors of PAMM were evaluated by binary logistic regression models. Results: A total of 781 eyes of 781 APAC or APACG patients were included, and PAMM was found in 22 (2.9%) of them. Stage III eyes had a significantly longer TST than stage I eyes (P = 0.008) while exhibiting significantly thinner retinal thicknesses (P < 0.0001). The BCVA improvement was significantly worse in the eyes treated in stage III than in those treated in stage I (P = 0.008). Older age, longer axial length and without type 2 diabetes were associated with a lower risk of incident PAMM (OR = 0.95, P = 0.028; OR = 0.52, P = 0.019; OR = 3.92, P = 0.022). Conclusion: PAMM can be secondary to APAC or APACG at a rate of 2.9%. Different visual outcomes were observed in patients who received the intervention at different stages of PAMM. Younger patients with a shorter axial length and type 2 diabetes were found to be more susceptible to PAMM.