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Optical coherence tomography clearly demonstrated significant acute injuries and chronic intimal thickening of RA after TRI. Further study should evaluate the impact of these effects when TRI RAs are subsequently used as conduits, on long-term graft patency and on clinical outcomes after bypass surgery.

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Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is a complex and multi-factorial disease, and low-grade inflammation is associated with pathogenesis of nAMD. Aqueous humor could reflect intraocular immune environments in various eye diseases. The research so far used aqueous humor samples and revealed that inflammation is involved in pathophysiology of nAMD, although immunological roles of cytokines were evaluated inadequately with aspect to individual effects. Here we used 27 kinds of cytokines covering general immunologic reactions, examined specific expression patterns of cytokines, and assessed relationships between inflammation and pathophysiology of nAMD by multivariate analyses. In nAMD eyes, principal component analysis showed that IL-7, MCP-1, MIP-1β and VEGF had high principal component loadings of over 0.6 in the first principal component constituting 32.6% of all variability of the data. In exploratory factor analysis, IL-6, MCP-1 and MIP-1β had high factor loadings (FL) of over 0.5 in Factor 1 constituting 32.6% of all variability, while VEGF had FL of over 1.0 in Factor 3 constituting 10.7% of all variability. In hierarchical cluster analysis, MCP-1 and VEGF were located in the cluster of first proximate mutual distance to central retinal thickness. These data could suggest that low-grade inflammation is a principal contributor in nAMD.

PurposeTo compare optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) images for detecting polypoidal lesions (PLs) and branching vascular networks (BVNs), and to measure the polypoidal areas (PAs) in patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).MethodsAll patients underwent ICGA, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and OCTA. We compared the detection sensitivity for PL and BVN, as evaluated by the ICGA and OCTA images. Furthermore, PA measured by ICGA was divided into two groups: one in which the area could be measured by OCTA (ICGAOCTA) and the other in which the area could not be measured by OCTA (ICGAOCTA).ResultsTwenty-one consecutive eyes of 21 patients (mean age, 73.8±9.8 years) were included. ICGA detected PL in all eyes (100%), whereas OCTA detected PL in 16 eyes (75.2%); ICGA detected BVN in 15 eyes (71.4%), whereas OCTA detected BVN in 20 eyes (95.2%). The mean PA in ICGAOCTA and ICGAOCTA was 0.24±0.04 and 0.14±0.01 mm, respectively; a significant difference was observed between ICGAOCTA PA and ICGAOCTA PA (P<0.0001). In addition, the mean PA in the ICGAOCTA group measured by ICGA and OCTA was 0.24±0.04 was 0.19±0.04 mm, respectively; these values were significantly different (P=0.0046).ConclusionsOCTA might detect more BVNs and fewer PLs compared with ICGA, and PL detected by OCTA might be smaller than those detected by ICGA.

The traditional classification of hypertensive retinopathy was based on the Keith–Wagener–Barker (KWB) grading, which is a subjective scaling system, and it is difficult to distinguish between the first and second grades. Retinal and choroidal vasculatures are affected by systemic hypertension, although retinal vasculature changes with age, axial length, intraocular pressure, and retinal diseases. It is necessary to establish a new objective method to assess hypertensive vascular changes. In the present study, we have examined the vasculature of the macular choriocapillaris in order to establish a new objective method to assess hypertensive vascular changes using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Choriocapillaris vessel density (VD), vessel length, and vessel diameter index in a 3 × 3 mm macular area were measured by OTCA in a total of 567 volunteers (361 healthy subjects and 206 subjects with systemic hypertension) who attended a basic health check-up. Ocular factors, systemic factors, and medications were evaluated. We detected significant differences in normative choriocapillaris vasculature between the left and right eyes in 53 healthy subjects and revealed correlations between age, intraocular pressure, axial length, and choriocapillaris vasculature in 308 healthy subjects. Normative foveal VD was correlated with age only and the efficiency was weak. The analysis of 206 right eyes (KWB grade 0, 159 eyes; grade 1, 35 eyes; and grade 2, 12 eyes) revealed that foveal VD was strongly correlated with KWB grade only (P < 0.001). This is the first report suggesting that OCTA for foveal choriocapillaris measurement by OCTA would might provide the advantage of evaluating be objective method for evaluating the progression of systemic hypertension.

Optical coherence tomography angiography-guided foveal avascular zone was significantly smaller in patients with ROP than in controls. Our results indicate that foveal vascular development may be altered in patients with a history of treatment-requiring ROP.

Interleukin-18 did not show a pro- or antiangiogenic effect on mouse laser-induced CNVs (laser-CNVs), whereas it directly induced RPE cell apoptosis in the mouse eye. Our results suggested that IL-18 is associated with dry AMD, but not with wet AMD.