Choroidal Vascularity Index in Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#To analyze the choroidal vascularity index (CVI) in an eye with retinal detachment and the fellow eye of a patient with monocular primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD). @*Methods@#We retrospectively analyzed optical coherence tomography data of both eyes at the first visit of patients who underwent surgery for monocular RRD from January 2017 to January 2018. The subfoveal CVIs of the RD eye, the fellow eye, and the postoperative 3-months RD eye were analyzed using Image J software by two independent ophthalmologists. @*Results@#Forty-five subjects were included. Of the 45 RD eyes, 25 eyes (55.6%) showed macula invasion. The subfoveal CVI was statistically lower in the RD eye compared with the fellow eye (65.61 ± 3.37 vs. 67.28 ± 3.44, respectively; p = 0.024). In the macula-on RD group, the preoperative subfoveal CVI was statistically higher than the subfoveal CVI of postoperative 3 months (67.62 ± 2.35 vs. 65.84 ± 3.04, respectively; p = 0.009). However, the preoperative subfoveal CVI was statistically lower than the subfoveal CVI of postoperative 3 months in the macula-off RD group (64.01 ± 3.21 vs. 66.69 ± 2.64, respectively; p < 0.001). @*Conclusions@#In primary RRD eyes, the subfoveal CVI was lower in the RD eye compared to the fellow eye. In macula-off RD eyes, the subfoveal CVI was lower in preoperative RD eyes compared to postoperative RD eyes. The subfoveal CVI was higher in the preoperative RD eyes compared to postoperative RD eyes in macula-on RD eyes. Further studies are needed to investigate the effects of RD on changes in the lumina and stoma in the choroid.