Peripapillary Choroidal Thickness Change of Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy after Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor.

PURPOSE: To investigate the peripapillary choroidal thickness (PCT) of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) and exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to evaluate their responses to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

METHODS: Thirty eyes with PCV and 25 eyes with exudative AMD who were treatment naïve were included in this study. PCT and subfoveal choroidal thickness were evaluated both before and after intravitreal anti-VEGF.

RESULTS: The initial mean PCT of PCV (153.78 ± 56.23 μm) was thicker than that of exudative AMD (88.77 ± 23.11 μm, p < 0.001). Temporal, superior, nasal, and inferior PCTs of PCV were all thicker than those observedin exudative AMD (all p < 0.05). After anti-VEGF, the mean PCT of PCV was significantly reduced (134.17 ± 41.66 μm, p < 0.001), but the same was not true not in exudative AMD (86.87 ± 22.54 μm, p = 0.392). PCTshowed a similar tendency in all quadrants.

CONCLUSIONS: PCV exhibits a thick choroid in the peripapillary region. PCT decreases after anti-VEGF in PCV but not in exudative AMD. In exudative AMD, subfoveal choroidal thickness decreased, but that in the peripapillary region did not.