Optical coherence tomography angiography characteristics of exudative and non-exudative treatmentnaive pachychoroid neovasculopathy

AIM:To describe the optical coherence tomography angiography(OCTA)characteristics of exudative and nonexudative treatment-naïve pachychoroid neovasculopathy(PNV).METHODS:Thirty-five patients with exudative treatmentnaïve PNV and 13 with non-exudative treatment-naïve PNV between March 2020 and December 2021 were included.All patients underwent ophthalmologic examination,including fluorescein angiography(FA),indocyanine green angiography(ICGA),spectral-domain OCT,and OCTA.The clinical data of the patients were retrospectively analyzed.RESULTS:The study included 51 eyes from 46 patients,of whom 33(71.7%)were male.The central macular thickness(CMT)in the exudative PNV group was significantly higher than that in the non-exudative PNV group(383.97±132.16μm vs 213.13±51.63μm;P<0.001).The maximum height of flat irregular pigment epithelial detachments(FIPED)was 45.40±11.86μm in the non-exudative PNV group,significantly lower than the 71.58±20.91μm(P<0.001)in the exudative PNV group.The area of PNV of the non-exudative PNV group was,significantly larger than that of the exudative PNV group(1.06±0.84 mm2 vs 0.63±0.80 mm2,P=0.016).There was a significant difference in PNV morphology between the two groups(P<0.001).Multivariate logistic regression analysis found that the maximum height of FIPED(OR=1.156,95%CI:1.019-1.312;P=0.024)and microvascular branches(OR=69.412,95%CI:3.538-1361.844;P=0.005)were independent predictors of PNV activity.CONCLUSION:The OCTA imaging finds that there are significant differences in CMT,maximum height of FIPED,PNV area,and morphology of exudative PNV and non-exudative PNV groups.OCTA can accurately identify the clinical and imaging features of exudative and nonexudative treatment-naïve PNV,and distinguish PNV activity.