POLYPOIDAL CHOROIDAL VASCULOPATHY

• DOI: 10.1097/iae.0b013e31823beb14
• Publication Date: 2011-11-30T12:17:26Z
• Authors: Samira Khan; Michael Engelbert; Yutaka Imamura; K. Bailey Freund
• Keywords: Aged, 80 and over; Indocyanine Green; Male; Middle Aged; Choroidal Neovascularization; Ophthalmoscopy; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Humans; Female; Fluorescein Angiography; Coloring Agents; Tomography, Optical Coherence; Aged; Retrospective Studies

To describe simultaneous scanning laser ophthalmoscope indocyanine green angiographic and eye-tracked spectral-domain optical coherence tomography findings in eyes with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).Eighteen eyes of 18 patients with PCV because of a variety of different diagnoses were imaged with simultaneous scanning laser ophthalmoscope indocyanine green angiography and eye-tracked spectral-domain optical coherence tomography to localize the polyps and their associated vascular structures with respect to the retinal layers.Regardless of the underlying diagnosis, simultaneous scanning laser ophthalmoscope indocyanine green angiography and eye-tracked spectral-domain optical coherence tomography imaging localized the polypoidal structures of PCV to within larger Type 1 neovascular complexes occurring within or above Bruch membrane. In 8 eyes, PCV appeared to adhere to the undersurface of an elevated retinal pigment epithelial detachment. In 1 eye, a PCV lesion was detected within the neurosensory retina having apparently eroded through the overlying retinal pigment epithelium.Simultaneous scanning laser ophthalmoscope indocyanine green angiography and eye-tracked spectral-domain optical coherence tomography demonstrate that a majority of PCV represents a variant of the Type 1 neovascular growth pattern, which can occur in a variety of different neovascularized maculopathies. Polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy lesions appear to originate from long-standing choroidal neovascularization, rather than from the choroidal vasculature itself. Given these observations, PCV would be more accurately described as a neovasculopathy rather than as a choroidal vasculopathy.