Early retinal microcirculation loss in non-functioning pituitary adenomas before visual field defect by WF SS-OCTA

Title : Early retinal microcirculation loss in non-functioning pituitary adenomas before visual field defect by WF SS-OCTA

Abstract:

Purpose: To evaluate the early retinal microcirculation alteration in non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) before visual field defects (VFD) by wide-field swept-source optical coherence tomography (WF SS-OCTA)
Methods: 82 NFPA patients without VFD and 82 age-matched, sex-matched healthy control individuals were included in this study. The right eyes of all subjects underwent detailed examinations, the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell complex (GCC), the flow area (FA) and vessel density (VD) of radial capillary plexus (RCP), superficial vascular complex (SVC) and deep vascular complex(DVC) were measured on the 12 x 12 mm macular area by WF SS-OCTA. The differences in these measurements between the two groups were analyzed, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were conducted to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the retinal microcirculation.
Results: Compared with the normal control group, RCP VD, SVC FA, SVC VD, DVC FA, DVC VD in NFPA patients were significantly lower (all p < 0.05), while RCP FA and the thickness of RNFL and GCC were not significantly different between the two groups (all p > 0.05). Multiple linear regressions showed RCP FA, RCP VD, SVC FA and SVC VD were positively correlated with the thickness of the RNFL and GCC (all p < 0.01), whereas DVC FA and DVC VD were associated with neither RNFL thickness nor GCC thickness (both p > 0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) showed that RCP VD, SVC VD, DCP FA and DCP VD (AUC = 0.613, 0.606, 0.730 and 0.709, respectively, all p < 0.05) had diagnostic significance for NFPA.
Conclusion: NFPA patients before VFD produce a characteristic pattern of early retinal microcirculation loss that WF SS-OCTA can recognize. WF SS-OCTA is a useful tool for early predicting visual impairment in NFPA.

Keywords: Early retinal microcirculation; non-functioning pituitary adenomas; before visual field defect; WF SS-OCTA.

Biography:

Dr. Chong Tang studied ophthalmology at Chongqing Medical University and received her master's degree in 2019. Subsequently, she worked in the research group of Professor Yang Peizeng in the First Affiliated Hospital and Laboratory of Chongqing Medical University. She is currently working on her PhD project, and she has published 6 research papers in SCI (E) research articles in SCI (E) journals, particularly, there was one article in the “Lancet Rheumatol”with an impact factor of 15.