Relationship between proximity of choriocapillaris flow deficits and enlargement rate of geographic atrophy.

Objective: To correlate choriocapillaris (CC) flow deficits (FD) in eyes with geographic atrophy (GA) at various distances from the border of the GA lesion with yearly enlargement rate (yER) of GA.

Methods: In this retrospective study, spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and SD optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images were collected from patients with GA, who were imaged at Doheny Eye Centers between 2016 and 2018, using the Cirrus HD-OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA). All enrolled patients had one baseline 6 × 6 mm OCTA scan and two 6 × 6 mm SD-OCT cubes, one at baseline and one at a follow-up visit at least 12 months later. The border of the GA was manually outlined on the en face OCT fundus image and the yER was calculated after square root transformation. A grid composed of 100-μm-wide successive concentric rings was created around the GA lesion on the OCTA CC slab using ImageJ and the FD% was calculated from the binarized image. FD% from each ring was correlated with the yER of GA.

Results: Thirty eyes of 22 patients were included in the study. The mean yER was 0.2 ± 0.15 mm. The FD% in the first five rings (from 0 to 500 μm from the border of GA) was significantly correlated with the yER. However, there was no statistically significant correlation between the yER and CC FD% beyond 500 μm from the GA lesion.

Conclusions: Only the choriocapillaris FD% in the 500-μm region immediately surrounding GA lesions appears to predict the rate of enlargement of these lesions.