Relationship Between Choriocapillaris Flow and Scotopic Microperimetry in Early and Intermediate Age-related Macular Degeneration.

Abstract

To evaluate the correlation between choriocapillaris (CC) flow alterations and scotopic macular sensitivity (sMS) in patients with early and intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Prospective cross-sectional study. We acquired 2 3 × 3 mm and 2 6 × 6 mm swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images of 1 eye of consecutive early or intermediate AMD patients at the Doheny UCLA Eye Centers. After 30 minutes of dark adaptation, the same eye underwent scotopic microperimetry with an 18-degree-wide grid (52 stimuli) centered on the fovea. The 2 en face CC angiograms obtained from each scan pattern were compensated for signal loss and averaged. The main outcome measures were correlation between percentages of flow deficits (FD_3mm and FD_6mm) and sMS in the central 10° (MS₁₀) and the overall pattern (MS₁₈). Thirty eyes of 30 patients were enrolled, with 14 (46.7%) having subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDD). In the averaged OCTA scans, the FD_3mm was 12.56% ± 2.41% while the FD_6mm was 9.33% ± 1.84%. The mean MS₁₀ and MS₁₈ were 13.84 ± 5.89 dB and 14.64 ± 5.21 dB, respectively. For the MS_10, the multivariate regression analysis showed a significant association only with FD_3mm (β: -0.628, P < .001) while the MS₁₈ was significantly correlated with both SDD (β: -0.32, P = .047) and FD_6mm (β: -0.473, P = .005). Our study reports a significant correlation between the CC flow impairment and the sMS in eyes with early or intermediate AMD. If replicated in future longitudinal studies, the choriocapillaris FD may prove to be a useful parameter for evaluating the functional status and prognosis of these eyes.