Abstract
Purpose
To demonstrate the marginal corneal vascular remodelling using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) after pterygium surgery.
Methods
Twenty-two eyes of 19 patients (8 males, 11 females; age, 58.68 ± 0.34 years) with primary grade-T3 nasal pterygium were enroled in this study. The eyes underwent excision of the pterygium followed by a free limbal-conjunctival autograft. OCTA was performed in the nasal limbal area before surgery and at 10 days, 1 month, and 3 months after surgery. The scans were analyzed in terms of postoperative vascular remodelling of the autograft and marginal corneal vascular arcades (MCAs).
Results
Preoperatively, the pterygium presented as abnormal centripetal vascular growth in OCTA scans. The conjunctival vessel density in the nasal quadrant was 29.26% ± 1.00%, 15.80% ± 0.83%, 19.80% ± 0.88%, and 20.26% ± 0.89% before and 10 days, 1 month, and 3 months, respectively, after surgery (F = 1.55, P < 0.01). The vessel density of MCAs was 28.33% ± 0.88%, 42.09% ± 0.41%, and 42.46% ± 0.31% 10 days, 1 month, and 3 months, respectively, after surgery (F = 188.2, P < 0.01).
Conclusions
We describe a new application of OCTA for MCA vasculature imaging. Vascular remodelling of the graft and MCAs appeared at 1 month and continued for 3 months after surgery.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai (17411963800, 19JC1411703), Joint Research Project of the Emerging Cutting-Edge Technology of Shanghai Shen-Kang Hospital Development Center (SHDC12018110), and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission-Gaofeng Clinical Medicine Grant Support (20161421).
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Zhao, Z., Yue, Y., Zhang, S. et al. Optical coherence tomography angiography for marginal corneal vascular remodelling after pterygium surgery with limbal-conjunctival autograft. Eye 34, 2054–2062 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-0773-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-0773-8
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