CORRELATION OF OPTICAL INTENSITY ON OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY AND VISUAL OUTCOME IN CENTRAL RETINAL ARTERY OCCLUSION.

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between optical coherence tomography (OCT) characteristics at baseline and visual outcome in central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO).

METHODS: The medical charts and OCT images of patients with central retinal artery occlusion with follow-up for more than 90 days were reviewed. Optical intensities of inner retinal layers, outer nuclear layers, and photoreceptor/retinal pigment epithelium were measured using Image J software. Optical intensity ratio was calculated as the optical intensity of inner retinal layers divided by that of photoreceptor/retinal pigment epithelium. Retinal thickness over the nine early treatment diabetic retinopathy study regions was automatically calculated by OCT software. The relationship between best-corrected visual acuity at the last follow-up and OCT characteristics were analyzed using Spearman correlation.

RESULTS: Fifteen eyes of 15 central retinal artery occlusion patients were included, with mean follow-up of 327.1 ± 184.1 days. The final best-corrected visual acuity was mildly or moderately correlated with retinal thicknesses, and strongly correlated with the optical intensity of photoreceptor/retinal pigment epithelium (r = -0.707, P = 0.003) and optical intensity ratio (r = 0.825, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Optical intensity ratio on OCT is highly correlated with visual prognosis in central retinal artery occlusion. It may be a potential biomarker of retinal ischemia.