Eur Eye Res. 2021; 1(2): 99-103 | DOI: 10.14744/eer.2021.46330

Optical coherence tomography angiography findings in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Sinan Emre¹, Mahmut Oğuz Ulusoy^2
1Department of Ophthalmology, Ekol Hospitals, Izmir, Turkey
²Department of Ophthalmology, Başkent University, Konya Research Hospital, Konya, Turkey

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that can affect eye, such as retina vascular occlusions are frequent with this disorder. We aimed to describe the optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) findings of SLE patients. We evaluated three SLE patients which one of them had retinal vein occlusion and active vasculitis in different eyes. Superficial capillary plexus, deep capillary plexus, and optic nerve head were evaluated using OCTA RTVue XR AVANTI. Two patients, with the lack of retinal pathologies, had no changes that were seen on OCT-A. Hypointense dark-grayish areas of retinal capillary non-perfusion/hypoperfusion, capillary telengiectasies, capillary rarefaction, and diffuse capillary network disorganization were seen on third patients’ OCT-A images. OCT-A shows better visualization of perifoveal microvascular structures than fundus fluorescein angiography in eyes with active and chronic SLE.

Keywords: Capillary plexus, optical coherence tomography angiography; retinal vein occlusion; systemic lupus erithematosus; vasculitis.

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