Purpose

To investigate risk factors, imaging characteristics, and treatment responses of cystoid macular edema (CME) after rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) repair.

Methods

Consecutive, retrospective case-control series of patients who underwent pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) and/or scleral buckling (SB) for RRD, with at least six months of follow-up. Clinical and surgical parameters of patients with and without CME (nCME), based on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT), were compared.

Results

Of 99 eyes enrolled, 25 had CME while 74 had nCME. Patients with CME underwent greater numbers of surgeries (P < 0.0001). After adjusting for number of surgeries, macula-off RRD (P = 0.06), proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) (P = 0.09), surgical approach (PPV and/or SB, P = 0.21), and tamponade type (P = 0.10) were not statistically significant, although they all achieved significance on univariate analysis (P = 0.001 or less). Intraoperative retinectomy (P = 0.009) and postoperative pseudophakia or aphakia (P = 0.008) were more frequent in the CME group, even after adjustment. Characteristics of cCME on OCT included diffuse distribution, confluent cysts, and absence of subretinal fluid or intraretinal hyperreflective foci. Macular thickness improved significantly with intravitreal triamcinolone (P = 0.016), but not with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents (P = 0.828) or dexamethasone implant (P = 0.125). After adjusting for number of surgeries and macular detachment, final visual acuities remained significantly lower in the CME vs nCME group (P = 0.012).

Conclusion

Risk factors of CME include complex retinal detachment repairs requiring multiple surgeries, and pseudophakic or aphakic lens status. Although this cCME was associated with poor therapeutic response, corticosteroids were the most effective studied treatments.

Purpose

Migraine, particularly with aura, has been associated with ocular and systemic ischemic complications, but there are limited data on the ocular vasculature in migraine. We used optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) to assess perfusion of the macula and optic nerve in migraine patients, with (MA) and without (MO) aura, compared to healthy controls (HC).

Methods

We recruited 15 MA (mean age 42 years), 12 MO (mean age 46 years), and 22 HC (mean age 39 years) participants from neurology and neuro-ophthalmology clinics. Participants underwent optical coherence tomography and 3 × 3 mm OCTA of the macula and optic nerve. Foveal avascular zone area was automatically measured using AngioVue software, and vessel density was calculated as blood vessel length divided by scan area (mm-1) after skeletonization of OCTA images.

Results

On macular OCTA, MA participants had an enlarged foveal avascular zone area when compared with HC (0.300 ± 0.019 vs. 0.220 ± 0.066 mm2, P = 0.006). In addition, superficial foveal vessel density was decreased in MA participants when compared with MO participants (7.8 ± 0.31 vs. 9.3 ± 0.44, P = 0.04) and HC (7.8 ± 0.31 vs. 9.4 ± 0.21 mm-1, P = 0.002). On optic nerve OCTA, the MA participants had reduced superior peripapillary vessel density when compared with the MO participants (12.0 ± 0.45 vs. 14.0 ± 0.38 mm-1, P = 0.031) and HC (12.0 ± 0.45 vs. 14.1 ± 0.53 mm-1, P = 0.035). There were no significant differences between the MO and HC groups.

Conclusions

Migraine with, but not without, aura was associated with foveal and peripapillary vascular decrements, which may possibly mediate increased risk of ocular and systemic vascular complications in these patients. OCTA could potentially be useful as a biomarker for migraine with aura.