Ocular Microbiology and Immunology Group
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2023 OMIG Abstract

Conjunctival Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography is Associated with Ocular Redness and Corneal Dendritic Cells in Ocular Surface Disease

William W. Binotti^1,2, and Pedram Hamrah<sup>1,2

1</sup>New England Eye Center, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA;
²Center for Translational Ocular Immunology, Boston, MA

Purpose: Determine vascular parameters through optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) imaging to assess inflammation in ocular surface disease.

Methods: Total of 25 eyes of 25 patients were included. OCTA conjunctival measurements (vessel density, diameter and tortuosity) were correlated to confocal corneal dendritic cell density (DCD) and slit-lamp validated bulbar redness (VBR) grading at the same visit as surrogates of ocular surface inflammation. Nasal and temporal conjunctiva were averaged per eye for analysis.

Results: Thirteen eyes of 13 patients with dry eye disease, 2 eyes of 2 patients with acute herpetic keratitis, 10 eyes of 10 patients with non-acute herpetic keratitis were assessed. Mean age was 60.3±11.4 years with 17 females (68.0%). Mean VBR grading was 2.8±1.0 [1-5] and mean DCD was 131.3±93.9 cells/mm³ [12.5-385.4]. Mean OCTA vessel density, vessel diameter index, and tortuosity index were 44.6±5.1% [35.2-54.8], 5.4±0.2 [4.9-5.8] and 1.8±0.1 [1.6-1.8], respectively. Only conjunctival vessel density showed a significant correlation to VBR grading (r=0.539, p=0.005) and to central corneal DCD (r=0.553, p=0.004).

Conclusions: OCTA conjunctival vessel density is a novel non-invasive surrogate for ocular surface inflammation in the clinical setting.

Disclosure: P (Binotti, Hamrah: Systems and Methods for Determining Tissue Inflammation Levels); C (Hamrah: Heidelberg Engineering)

Support: Dompe

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