Purpose

To investigate choroidal structural changes on optical coherence tomography (OCT) using choroidal vascularity index (CVI) in patients with uveitis.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 38 patients with anterior, intermediate, posterior or panuveitis and 40 healthy controls. Subfoveal OCT scans from one eye per subject were analyzed. Total choroidal area (TCA) and luminal area (LA) were measured after image segmentation and binarization. CVI, a novel marker for choroidal angioarchitecture, was defined as the ratio of LA to TCA. CVI was compared between uveitis and control group using Kruskal-Wallis test.

Results

Mean age in uveitis and control group was 53.0±12.1 and 50.5±14.3 years, respectively. Proportion of female subjects was 42.5% in uveitis group and 60% in control group. There was no statistically significant difference in age and gender between the two groups (p=0.39 for age, p=0.18 for gender). Mean CVI was lower in eyes with uveitis (63.0±3.6%) compared to that in control eyes (65.6±2.9%) and this was statistically significant (p=0.0008). There was no significant difference in TCA or LA between uveitis and control group (p=0.31 and 0.16, respectively).

Conclusions

Decreased CVI was shown in eyes with uveitis compared to control eyes. CVI may be helpful in understanding choroidal structural changes in uveitis.