Recent research published in Microvascular Research evaluated quantitative metrics of neovascularization lesions and choroidal vasculature in polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) eyes and investigated the relationship between imaging biomarkers and anti-VEGF treatment outcomes using full-range SS-OCTA.

The results indicated that a higher number of endpoints and a lower average vessel length in PCV lesions were correlated with greater shrinkage of the vessel area after anti-VEGF treatment. Additionally, lower subfoveal choroidal thickness was associated with a better morphological response to anti-VEGF therapy. These findings suggest that quantitative metrics of neovascularization lesions and choroidal characteristics using SS-OCTA have the potential to serve as imaging biomarkers for predicting the response to anti-VEGF treatment.

A 400 kHz swept-source OCTA (BMizar, TowardPi Medical) was used in this study to acquire high-resolution images of neovascularization and choroidal vessels, utilizing a built-in precise segmentation algorithm and choroid angiography algorithm. Choroidal quantitative parameters, such as subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) and the choroidal vascularity index (CVI), are available on the device. Further quantitative metrics based on high-resolution OCTA images—including total vessel length (TVL), average vessel length (AVL), junction density (JD), total number of endpoints (TNE), and mean lacunarity (ML)—were also evaluated in this research.

This research was conducted by Dr. Yue Zhang and the team led by Prof. Xiaobing Yu from Beijing Hospital.

Link to the original text: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0026286224001080