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

In Brief 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. In central retinal artery occlusion, the visual outcome was only mildly or moderately correlated with retinal thickness at baseline, but strongly correlated with optical intensity ratio of inner retinal layers and photoreceptor/retinal pigment epithelium on optical coherence tomography.