Evaluation Of Early And Late Covid-19-Induced Vascular Changes With Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

Turker, Ibrahim Cagri; Dogan, Ceylan Uslu; Dirim, AyÅŸe Burcu; Guven, Dilek; Kutucu, Oguz Kaan

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate vascular changes in the early period after COVID-19 infection and at a 6-month follow-up. METHODS: This study included 50 eyes of 25 patients who had been hospitalized for PCR-positive COVID-19 infection and 50 eyes of 25 healthy individuals. All subjects underwent optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) using a 6 × 6 macular protocol in the early period after hospital discharge and 6 months later. Foveal vessel density (VD) and parafoveal VD values were measured from 4 quadrants (superior, inferior, nasal, temporal) of the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and the deep capillary plexus (DCP). Choriocapillaris (CC) flow area and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area were also measured. The OCT-A measurements of the patient group were compared both between time points and with the control group at each time point. RESULTS: COVID-19 patients showed lower VD values than control subjects in all parafoveal quadrants of both the SCP (superior, p=0.01; inferior, p=0.048; nasal, p=0.003; temporal, p=0.048) and the DCP (superior, p=0.001; inferior, p=0.011; nasal, p=0.012; temporal, p=0.018) at the initial checkup and in all parafoveal quadrants of the SCP (superior, p=0.0001; inferior, p=0.007; nasal, p=0.001; temporal, p=0.017) and in 2 of the parafoveal quadrants of the DCP (superior, p=0.003; inferior, p=0.016) at the 6-month follow-up. CC flow area values were significantly lower at the 6-month follow-up compared with the initial examination (p=0.044). CONCLUSION: It is important to perform appropriate follow-up for COVID-19 patients as retinal vascular flow changes may persist in the long term.