Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Evaluation of Ocular Changes in Patients With Carotid Artery Stenosis
Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Evaluation of Ocular Changes in Patients With Carotid Artery Stenosis
This study aims to evaluate ocular changes in patients with carotid artery stenosis by
 optical coherence tomography angiography before and after carotid artery revascularization
 procedure.
A growing body of research indicates that abnormal ocular microvascular features may serve as
 a novel biomarker reflecting the severity of underlying cardiovascular, neurodegenerative,
 and microvascular disease. Since blood flow to the retina is predominantly supplied by the
 internal carotid artery (ICA), we hypothesized that ocular microvasculature and structure
 changes may reflect the disease status or therapeutic effects in patients with carotid artery
 stenosis.

 Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a novel, non-invasive imaging modality
 that can be a reliable tool for the qualitative and quantitative assessments of ocular
 vessels during various ocular pathological or physiological changes. Recent studies have also
 demonstrated the ability of OCTA to quantify retinal microvascular changes in monitoring
 cardiovascular risk.

 This study aims to evaluate ocular changes in patients with carotid artery stenosis by
 optical coherence tomography angiography before and after carotid artery revascularization
 procedure.In this study, the patients with carotid artery stenosis and control group will
 receive a series of cerebral and ocular examinations including the most important cerebral CT
 perfusion (CTP) and OCTA. After that, the cerebral and ocular data between the two groups
 will be compared. Also, the preoperative and postoperative data acquired will be compared.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Clinical diagnosis of carotid artery stenosis

 -  Age-gender-race-matched controls

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  age <18 years

 -  intraocular pressure (IOP) >21 mmHg

 -  VA >logMAR 1.0

 -  spherical equivalent (SE) between >1.00 or < -6.00 D

 -  other serious eye diseases which may affect OCTA results including diabetic
 retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy, retinal vascular occlusion, age-related macular
 degeneration, and uveitis

 -  major intraocular surgery performed in the past 6 months or a history of laser
 photocoagulation or intravitreal injection

 -  glaucoma or first-degree relatives with a history of glaucoma; and

 -  any disease that might cause poor scan quality (image quality <6).