USE OF CHOROIDAL VASCULARITY INDEX FOR CHOROIDAL STRUCTURAL EVALUATION IN CENTRAL SEROUS CHORIORETINOPATHY WITH CHOROIDAL NEOVASCULARIZATION

Purpose: To evaluate choroidal vascular structure in eyes with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) by assessing the choroidal vascular index (CVI). Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 117 eyes with CSC. Subjects were divided into 4 groups according to clinical characteristics: 1) acute CSC (N = 29), 2) non-neovascularized chronic CSC without flat irregular pigment epithelial detachment (N = 49), 3) non-neovascularized chronic CSC with flat irregular pigment epithelial detachment (N = 21), and 4) chronic CSC with choroidal neovascularization (N = 18). Subfoveal choroidal area (1,500 mm) of swept source optical coherence tomography scans were divided into luminal and stromal areas by the image binarization technique. The CVI was defined as the ratio of the luminal to the total subfoveal choroidal area. Results: The CVI was significantly lower in eyes of Group 4 than those of other groups (allP< 0.05). The subfoveal choroidal thickness was significantly lower in Group 4 than in Groups 1 and 2 (P< 0.05), but regression analysis showed no association with the CVI. Conclusion: Decreased CVI may reflect choroidal vascular structure changes in eyes with choroidal neovascularization complicating CSC. These findings suggest that the CVI could be useful for evaluating choroidal vascular changes in eyes with CSC.