OCT Angiography Metrics Predict Progression of Diabetic Retinopathy and Development of Diabetic Macular Edema

Purpose

To prospectively determine the relationship of OCT angiography (OCTA) metrics to diabetic retinopathy (DR) progression and development of diabetic macular edema (DME).

Design

Prospective, observational study.

Participants

A total of 205 eyes from 129 patients with diabetes mellitus followed up for at least 2 years.

Methods

All participants underwent OCTA with a swept-source OCT device (DRI-OCT Triton, Topcon, Inc, Tokyo, Japan). Individual OCTA images of superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP) were generated by IMAGEnet6 (Basic License 10). After a quality check, automated measurements of foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, FAZ circularity, vessel density (VD), and fractal dimension (FD) of both SCP and DCP were then obtained.

Main Outcome Measures

Progression of DR and development of DME.

Results

Over a median follow-up of 27.14 months (interquartile range, 24.16–30.41 months), 28 of the 205 eyes (13.66%) developed DR progression. Of the 194 eyes without DME at baseline, 17 (8.76%) developed DME. Larger FAZ area (hazard ratio [HR], 1.829 per SD increase; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.332–2.512), lower VD (HR, 1.908 per SD decrease; 95% CI, 1.303–2.793), and lower FD (HR, 4.464 per SD decrease; 95% CI, 1.337–14.903) of DCP were significantly associated with DR progression after adjusting for established risk factors (DR severity, glycated hemoglobin, duration of diabetes, age, and mean arterial blood pressure at baseline). Lower VD of SCP (HR, 1.789 per SD decrease; 95% CI, 1.027–4.512) was associated with DME development. Compared with the model with established risk factors alone, the addition of OCTA metrics improved the predictive discrimination of DR progression (FAZ area of DCP, C-statistics 0.723 vs. 0.677, P < 0.001; VD of DCP, C-statistics 0.727 vs. 0.677, P = 0.001; FD of DCP, C-statistics 0.738 vs. 0.677, P < 0.001) and DME development (VD of SCP, C-statistics 0.904 vs. 0.875, P = 0.036).

Conclusions

The FAZ area, VD, and FD of DCP predict DR progression, whereas VD of SCP predicts DME development. Our findings provide evidence to support that OCTA metrics improve the evaluation of risk of DR progression and DME development beyond traditional risk factors.