Interocular Symmetry of Vascular Density and Association with Central Macular Thickness of Healthy Adults by Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

Abstract

In order to analyze the interocular correlation of vascular density, foveal avascular zone (FAZ) size, central macular thickness (CMT), and to investigate the relationship between vascular density and CMT in normal eyes, retinal vascular density in superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP) and choriocapillaris (CC) networks, FAZ size, and CMT were visualized by optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography. A total of 174 eyes of 87 normal Chinese subjects were enrolled in the study. The results showed that FAZ and CMT measurements are not statistically significant between right and left eyes, but right eyes had higher vascular density in superficial, deep retinal capillary and choriocapillaris networks, which might be related with dominant eyes. Spearman correlation test revealed a high correlation between right and left eyes for FAZ and CMT measurements (r = 0.934; r = 0.935), and a moderate correlation for SCP, DCP and CC density (r = 0.402; r = 0.666; r = 0.417). The analysis showed greater vascular density with smaller FAZ size, and a high negative relationship between FAZ and CMT, which indicates a positive correlation between retinal blood supply and retinal thickness.