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. 2023 Apr 5;23(1):139.
doi: 10.1186/s12886-023-02884-7.

Vascular features around the optic disc in familial exudative vitreoretinopathy: findings and their relationship to disease severity

Shuai Liu  1 , Hongwei Zhao  2 , Liuhui Huang  3 , Cuixia Ma  1 , Qiong Wang  1 , Lei Liu  4
Affiliations

Vascular features around the optic disc in familial exudative vitreoretinopathy: findings and their relationship to disease severity

Shuai Liu et al. BMC Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Background: Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR) is a rare congenital disorder of retinal vascular development. We aimed to study the vascular characteristics around the optic disc in neonates with FEVR and the relationship with disease severity.

Methods: A retrospective, case-control study including 43 (58 eyes) newborn patients with FEVR at stages 1 to 3 and 30 (53 eyes) age-matched normal full-term newborns was conducted. The peripapillary vessel tortuosity (VT), vessel width (VW) and vessel density (VD) were quantified by computer technology. The t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) algorithm was used to visualize the relationship between the severity of FEVR and the characteristics of perioptic disc vascular parameters.

Results: The peripapillary VT, VW and VD were significantly increased in the FEVR group compared with the control group (P < 0.05). Subgroup analysis showed that VW and VD increased significantly with progressing FEVR stage (P < 0.05). And only VT in stage 3 FEVR was significantly increased compared with stage 1 and stage 2 (P < 0.05). After controlling the confounders, ordinal logistic regression analysis indicated that the VW (aOR: 1.75, P = 0.0002) and VD (aOR: 2.41, P = 0.0170) were significantly independent correlated with the FEVR stage, but VT (aOR: 1.07, P = 0.5454) was not correlated with FEVR staging. Visual analysis based on the t-SNE algorithm showed that peri-optic disc vascular parameters had a continuity along the direction of FEVR severity.

Conclusions: In the neonatal population, there were significant differences in peripapillary vascular parameters between patients with FEVR and normal subjects. Quantitative measurement of vascular parameters around the optic disc can be used as one of the indicators to assess the severity of FEVR.

Keywords: Computer technology; Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy; Neonates; T-SNE visualization; Vascular features.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(A-D). Typical Fundus Images of Normal Full-term Newborns and Different Stages of FEVR Patients Taken by RetCam 3.A: Fundus image of a normal full-term neonate, retinal blood vessels developed to the peripheral retina; B: Fundus images of FEVR patients at stage 1, the demarcation line of avascular zone can be seen in the temporal periphery of the retina. C: Fundus image of FEVR patients at stage 2, ridge-like changes can be seen in the temporal periphery of the retina with neovascular tissue surrounding the ridge. D: Fundus image of FEVR patients at stage 3, ridge-like changes were seen in the nasal periphery of the retina with hemorrhage and fibrous tissue proliferation, causing peripheral retinal detachment without involving the macula
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The pipeline of FEVR analysis
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Original images, segmented OD and BV for the normal, Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 of FEVR conditions. The red circles, with a radius of formula image, indicate the ROI.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
T-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (T-SNE) visualization of BV features for analysis of FVER severity
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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