Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) findings in Serpiginous Choroiditis

Abstract

Background: To describe changes in the retina/choroid in patients with Serpiginous Choroiditis (SC) by Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) in a multimodal imaging approach. Methods: Prospective, monocentric study of 24 eyes of 12 consenting patients diagnosed with SC, who underwent OCTA, which was analyzed and compared to other methods such as enhanced depth imaging-OCT, fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, and fundus autofluorescence. Results: The study group consisted of 9 patients with peripapillary SC, 1 macular SC, and 2 atypical cases. All eyes presented an inactive SC confirmed by standard imaging. OCTA demonstrated the lesions tridimensionally in great detail. There was no difference in the angioarchitecture among the 3 forms of SC. A loss of the choriocapillaris/retinal pigment epithelium left a "window-defect", where the vessels of larger caliber of the choroid became recognizable and their appearance inverted ("white-on-black"). A relationship between the presence of segmentation errors (SE) in the slabs and low visual acuity was established with a one-way ANOVA. Conclusions: OCTA was able to non-invasively assess vascular lesions of the choroid/retina in patients with SC with a high degree of correlation to other diagnostic modalities. Consequent long-term assessments could lead to a better understanding of disease progression.

Image of serpiginous choroiditis in swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography – a review of the literature

“…Macedo et al further demonstrated loss of inner retinal layers in more advanced stages of atrophy in SC, resulting in increased visibility of the choroid, which was isoreflective. In their study, OCTA imaging showed hypo-perfused choriocapillaris in all 12 patients with SC, which compared well with the atrophic areas found on EDI-OCT [24].…”

“…Although SC is a rare disease, the authors working on this issue have demonstrated the reliability of a technique such as OCTA in the diagnosis of SC over existing diagnostic methods (ICGA, FA, FAF) [7,24].…”

The impact of impending / onset of vision loss on depression, anxiety, and vision-related quality of life in Birdshot-Retinochoroiditis and Serpiginous Choroiditis

“…This cross-sectional study enrolled patients with BSRC and SC who were scheduled for an examination with multimodal imaging technique at Charité University of Medicine Berlin [21,22]. Each patient was informed about the study and has given written consent.…”