Clinical Relevance of Parafoveal Intercapillary Spaces and Foveal Avascular Zone in Diabetic Retinopathy Without Macular Edema

PURPOSE. To investigate the clinical significance of intercapillary spaces on swept source optical coherence tomography angiography images in diabetic retinopathy. METHODS. We retrospectively reviewed 110 eyes of 110 patients suffering from diabetic retinopathy without macular edema for whom 3 x 3 mm swept source optical coherence tomography angiography images centered on the fovea were obtained. Automatic image processing of the superficial slab images allowed us to define the areas encircled by retinal vessels as intercapillary spaces within the central 2-mm circle. We evaluated how the quantitative parameters of intercapillary spaces are associated with logMAR and feasible to diagnose diabetic macular ischemia. RESULTS. Total counts (rho = -0.419; P < 0.001) rather than morphologic parameters of the intercapillary spaces showed a significant correlation with logMAR. There were individual levels of correlations between logMAR and counts of intercapillary spaces in individual sectors. In particular, the summed numbers of the spaces in three highly significant sectors were more significantly associated with logMAR (rho = -0.515; P < 0.001). Multivariate analyses confirmed that the number of the intercapillary spaces (beta = -0.266; P = 0.016) and foveal avascular zone area (beta = 0.227; P = 0.042) were related to logMAR. The clustering using the foveal avascular zone area and the number of intercapillary spaces revealed two major clusters; one had fewer intercapillary spaces (P < 0.001) and poorer logMAR (P < 0.001) than the other, with a wide range of the foveal avascular zone area. CONCLUSIONS. Decreased intercapillary spaces contribute to visual impairment in diabetic retinopathy and suggest one possible criterion of objective diagnosis of diabetic macular ischemia.

Automated summary

The study investigated the clinical significance of intercapillary spaces on swept source optical coherence tomography angiography images in diabetic retinopathy. The quantitative parameters of the spaces were correlated with visual impairment and could potentially serve as an objective diagnostic criterion for diabetic macular ischemia.