Vascular density with optical coherence tomography angiography and systemic biomarkers in low and high cardiovascular risk patients

Abstract

We aimed to compare retinal vascular density in Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCT-A) between patients hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and control patients and to investigate correlation with angiogenesis biomarkers. Patients hospitalized for an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in the Intensive Care Unit were included in the “high cardiovascular risk” group while patients without cardiovascular risk presenting in the Ophthalmology department were included as “control”. Both groups had blood sampling and OCT-A imaging. Retina microvascularization density in the superficial capillary plexus was measured on 3 × 3 mm angiograms centered on the macula. Angiopoietin-2, TGF-β1, osteoprotegerin, GDF-15 and ST-2 were explored with ELISA or multiplex method. Overall, 62 eyes of ACS patients and 42 eyes of controls were included. ACS patients had significantly lower inner vessel length density than control patients (p = 0.004). A ROC curve found that an inner vessel length density threshold below 20.05 mm−1 was moderately associated with ACS. Significant correlation was found between serum levels of angiopoietin-2 and osteoprotegerin, and retinal microvascularization in OCT-A (R = − 0.293, p = 0.003; R = − 0.310, p = 0.001). Lower inner vessel length density measured with OCT-A was associated with ACS event and was also correlated with higher concentrations of angiopoietin-2 and osteoprotegerin.

Prevalence of subclinical retinal ischemia in patients with cardiovascular disease – a hypothesis driven study

“…For instance, a sparse vascular network pattern that is detected in fundus color photography was associated with an increase in 10-year risk of cardiovascular mortality [34] . Individuals with acute coronary syndrome and those with lower ejection fraction had lower vascular density on OCT angiography scans [ 35 , 36 ].…”

Retinal Microvascular Changes in Familial Hypercholesterolemia: Analysis with Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

“…These quantitative parameters describe early retinal microvascular changes in systemic pathologies. Numerous previous studies found associations between abnormal OCTA-based retinal metrics and diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and cardiovascular events [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].…”

Prediction of Cardiovascular Parameters With Supervised Machine Learning From Singapore “I” Vessel Assessment and OCT-Angiography: A Pilot Study

“… 1 , 2 In addition, the quantitative description of retinal microvascularization was recently enhanced by the development of a new noninvasive technique: optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A). 3 It has been shown that quantitative retinal vascular characteristics in both fundus photographs with SIVA software and metrics of retinal vascular density with OCT-A are associated with patients’ systemic vascular alteration, 4 cardiovascular risk profile 5 , 6 and cardiovascular complications. 7 In addition, deep learning algorithms have been described for diabetic retinopathy detection, retinopathy of prematurity screening, grading of age-related macular degeneration, and glaucoma detection.…”