Macular Retinal Thickness And Microvasculature Alterations In Behcet’s Disease By OCTA

ObjectiveTo investigate alterations of retinal thickness(RT)and vessel density(VD)in the macular area of Behcet’s disease(BD)patients using the optical coherence tomography angiography(OCTA).MethodsA retrospective case-control study was conducted.From December 2021 to December 2022,14 patients with Behecet’s disease(28 eyes)were selected as the BD group from the Department of Rheumatology and immunology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University,and 14 healthy volunteers(28 eyes)matching the age and gender of the patients were selected as the control group from the Ophthalmic Research Center.Collect and record these subjects’ basic information,including gender,age,past medical history,and the results of specialized examinations,including antinuclear antibody spectrum,best corrected visual acuity,fundus examination,OCTA,etc.OCTA images were partitioned according to the early treatment diabetic retinopathy study(ETDRS).The Graphpad prism 8.0 statistical analysis software was used to analyze and compare the data of the two groups of subjects,and Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between each indicator.Results1.There were no significant differences in age,sex,intraocular pressure and blood pressure between the two groups(P<0.05).2.The full retinal thickness of Inner superior,Inner Inferior,Outer Superior and Outer Inferior regions in the macular region of the BD group was thicker than that in the control group,and the differences between the two were statistically significant(P<0.01;P<0.05;P<0.0001;P<0.01),and there were no statistical differences in the remaining regions(P<0.05).The inner retinal thickness of Outer Inferior was significantly higher than that of the control group(P<0.01;P<0.0001;P<0.0001;P<0.05;P<0.05;P<0.0001;P<0.001),Outer Nasal and Outer Temporal were not significantly different(P<0.05),and the differences in outer retinal thickness in all regions was not significant(P<0.05).3.There were significant differences in retinal vascular density between the two groups of Inner Superior,Inner Nasal,Outer Superior and Outer Nasal(P<0.01;P<0.0001;P < 0.01;P < 0.0001),and no significant difference was found in the remaining regions(P<0.05).4.Full retinal thickness of Outer Superior region [area under ROC curve: 0.9522(95% confidence interval: 0.8945-1.000)],inner retinal thickness of Inner Inferior,Outer Superior regions [area under ROC curve: 0.9094(95% confidence interval:0.8327-0.9862),0.9120(95% confidence interval: 0.8345-0.9895)] and vessel density in the superficial retinal Outer Nasal region [ Area under the ROC curve: 0.8973(95% confidence interval,CI: 0.8040-0.9906)] has a high sensitivity for the diagnosis of Behcet’s disease.5.The thickness of the inner layer of the retina and the thickness of the full layer of the retina were positively correlated with the density of the superficial retinal blood vessels in the BD group(P<0.0001),and the inner retinal thickness in the control group was positively correlated with the density of the superficial retinal blood vessels(P=0.0080).ConclusionThe results of OCTA study have shown that regional retinal thickness of the macular layer was thickened,and the superficial vessel density is reduced in Behcet’s disease patients,which explains the changes of fundus parameters during the progression of the disease.OCTA results can be used as one of the auxiliary diagnostic indicators for Behcet’s disease.