Prevalence of focal lamina cribrosa defects in eyes with pachychoroid disease spectrum

AIM: To determine the prevalence of focal lamina cribrosa (LC) defect among patients with pachychoroid disease spectrum (PDS) in the absence of peripapillary retinoschisis. METHODS: This retrospective, cross-sectional study comprised of 180 patients with PDS, including polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), central serous chorioretinopathy, and pachychoroidal neovasculopathy. Medical records and optic nerve head evaluations conducted using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with enhanced depth imaging were reviewed. As a control group, 236 patients who underwent ophthalmologic evaluation for vitreous floaters, without obvious ocular disease, were also included. RESULTS: The mean age of the PDS group, which included 118 male patients (65.6%), was 57.4±11.1y. There was no significant difference between the two groups in age (P=0.710) or sex (P=0.248). Six patients (3.3%) in the PDS group and none in the control group showed focal LC defect (P=0.318). Among the six patients with focal LC defect in the PDS group, four eyes had PCV, one eye was the fellow eye of a PCV eye, and one eye had pachychoroidal neovasculopathy. CONCLUSION: Focal LC defect can be defected in patients with PDS in the absence of peripapillary retinoschisis. However, the prevalence of focal LC defect was not different significantly between PDS patients and those who did not have PDS.

Effekt der „low-dose PDT“ auf die choriokapilläre Perfusion bei cCRCS

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Bei Patienten mit chronischer Chorioretinopathia centralis serosa (cCRCS) soll die „low-dose photodynamische Therapie“ (PDT) über eine kurzfristige choriokapilläre Minderperfusion zu einem langfristigen vaskulären Umbau mit konsekutiver Reduktion der vaskulären Hyperpermeabilität und Leckage führen. Ob sich die verminderte Perfusion gänzlich normalisiert, bleibt jedoch ungeklärt. Hauptziel der retrospektiv angelegten Studie war es, das choriokapilläre Flusssignal nach „low-dose PDT“ mittels optischer Kohärenztomographie-Angiographie (OCT‑A) zu analysieren. Patienten und Methoden Eingeschlossen wurden 19 im Rahmen der „low-dose PDT“ belichtete Areale an 16 Augen. Neben der Erhebung von Visus und Metamorphopsien wurden ein „enhanced depth imaging-OCT“ (EDI-OCT) und eine OCT-Angiographie mit Zentrierung auf das bei der „low-dose PDT“ belichtete Areal angefertigt. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Studie wurden das choriokapilläre Flusssignal sowie die chorioidale Dicke innerhalb eines genormten Bezirks sowohl im Bereich der PDT-Applikation als auch in einem unbeleuchteten Referenzareal in direkter Nähe mit gleicher Exzentrizität in Bezug auf die Fovea centralis retrospektiv ausgewertet. Ergebnisse Es konnten im Mittel eine Abnahme des choriokapillären Flusssignals um 33 % (p < 0,001) im belichteten Areal gegenüber dem Referenzareal sowie eine im Durchschnitt um 71 µm (p = 0,001) verminderte Aderhautdicke im Vergleich zum Referenzareal gezeigt werden; 7 von 10 Patienten beklagten trotz „low-dose PDT“ langfristig Metamorphopsien, jedoch ergab sich durch die Therapie bei fast der Hälfte der Patienten eine Visusverbesserung. Schlussfolgerungen Durch die OCT-Angiographie konnte gezeigt werden, dass die „low-dose PDT“ im Bereich der Choriokapillaris ein vermindertes Blutflusssignal zurücklässt und somit das vaskuläre Remodelling die thrombosebedingte Hypoperfusion nicht gänzlich kompensiert.

Macular and Peripapillary Choroidal Thickness Measured by Enhanced Depth Imaging Optical Coherence Tomography in Chinese Pregnant Women and Healthy No-Pregnant Women

Purpose: To evaluate macular, peripapillary choroidal thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in different trimesters and compare the measurements with those of healthy non-pregnant women. Methods: A prospective comparative study included 45 healthy pregnant women in first trimester, 90 women in second, 45 women in third trimesters and 45 healthy no-pregnant women as the control group. Macular choroidal thickness was measured at the subfoveal, 1mm temporal and 1mm nasal to the fovea using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT). Peripapillary choroidal thickness and RNFL thickness parameters were automatically calculated by the Spectralis OCT. These parameters were analyzed among groups. Results: The subfoveal, temporal and nasal choroidal thickness were all significantly thicker in second trimesters, comparing with those parameters in first, third trimesters and the control group (all P<0.05). The peripapillary choroidal thickness was significantly increased at temporal, nasal, nasal inferior, temporal inferior and global positions during pregnancy among the 4 groups (all P<0.05). The RNFL thickness was also significantly increased in pregnant women at nasal superior and nasal inferior quadrants.Conclusions: Our results suggested that macular choroidal thickening appeared in second trimester. And peripapillary choroidal thickness and RNFL thickness also became thickening in pregnant women comparing with no-pregnant women as a whole.

Enhancing the Tracking of Seedling Growth Using RGB-Depth Fusion and Deep Learning

The use of high-throughput phenotyping with imaging and machine learning to monitor seedling growth is a tough yet intriguing subject in plant research. This has been recently addressed with low-cost RGB imaging sensors and deep learning during day time. RGB-Depth imaging devices are also accessible at low-cost and this opens opportunities to extend the monitoring of seedling during days and nights. In this article, we investigate the added value to fuse RGB imaging with depth imaging for this task of seedling growth stage monitoring. We propose a deep learning architecture along with RGB-Depth fusion to categorize the three first stages of seedling growth. Results show an average performance improvement of 5% correct recognition rate by comparison with the sole use of RGB images during the day. The best performances are obtained with the early fusion of RGB and Depth. Also, Depth is shown to enable the detection of growth stage in the absence of the light.

Evaluation of Choroidal Thickness Using Optical Coherent Tomography: A Review

The choroid is the main source of blood and nourishment supply to the eye. The dysfunction of the choroid has been implicated in various retinal and choroidal diseases. The identification and in-depth understanding of pachychoroid spectrum disorders are based on the tremendous progress of optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology in recent years, although visibility of choroid is challenging in the era of the time or spectral domain OCT. The recent rapid revolution of OCTs, such as the enhanced depth imaging OCT and the swept-source OCT, has greatly contributed to the significant improvement in the analysis of the morphology and physiology of the choroid precisely, especially to the choroid–scleral boundary and vasculature. The present review highlights the recently available evidence on the measurement methodology and the clinical significance of choroidal thickness in retinal or choroidal disorders.