Evaluation of Retinal and Choroidal Microvascular Changes in Healthy Pregnant Women Using Optical Coherence

Özet

Purpose: To evaluate retinal and choroidal micro-vascular changes in healthy pregnant women using optical coherence tomography angiography(OCTA).Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional cohort study was conducted on healthy pregnant and non-pregnant women. Macular fl ow area(superfi cial, deep, and choriocapillaris [CC]), superfi cial and deep vessel density, foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, central foveal thickness(CFT), and subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) were measured using OCTA.Results: We evaluated 23 eyes of 23 pregnant women with mean age of 31.5±4.1 (26-43) years and 23 eyes of 23 age-matched controls (meanage: 30.5±3.9 [23-43] years). Superfi cial, deep, and CC macular fl ow areas were measured as 16.48±2.1, 14.55±0.8, and 18.71±1.1 in thepregnant women and 13.64±1.1, 13.97±0.6, and 17.63±0.4 in controls, respectively. In addition, superfi cial and deep vessel densities weresignifi cantly greater in the pregnant women than controls in all areas (foveal, parafoveal, temporal, superior, nasal, inferior) (P 0.05 for all).Conclusion: Retinochoroidal micro-vascular fl ow and vessel density in the macular area were increased in pregnant women compared to nonpregnantcontrols. The clinical relevance of these alterations should be evaluated in further studies.