Objective: To investigate the relationship between pachychoroid pigment epitheliopathy (PPE) and other diseases of the pachychoroid spectrum by analyzing the frequency of PPE in fellow eyes of patients with diseases of the pachychoroid spectrum. Design: Retrospective single center study Participants: Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of the pachychoroid spectrum were included if they had OCT images of sufficient image quality. Methods: We searched in-house patient management softwares for suitable participants in the period from January 2012 to December 2022. Data of the included patients were extracted and OCT images were analyzed. The results were assessed using descriptive statistics. Main Outcome Measures: Absolute and relative frequency of PPE in the fellow eyes of patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC), pachychoroid neovasculopathy (PNV), aneurysmatic choroidal neovascularization type 1 (ACNV-1), focal choroidal excavation (FCE), pachychoroid peripapillary syndrome (PPS). Results: In total we included 724 patients in our study. Patient age ranged from 25 to 100 years, 565 (78%) patients were male and 158 (22%) patients had manifest (CSC, PNV, ACNV-1, FCE, PPS) bilateral disease. Of the 582 patients with unilateral disease, 307 (53%) had PPE in the fellow eye. PPE was present in 41.7% of CSC partner eyes, in 30.5% in PNV partner eyes, in 45% of ACNV-1 partner eyes, in 100% of FCE partner eyes and in 8,7% of PPE partner eyes. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the frequency of PPE in fellow eyes of patients with all diseases of the pachychoroid spectrum. Our data supports the hypothesis that this entity is common in the fellow eyes of all diseases of this spectrum.
Pachychoroid pigment epitheliopathy in fellow eyes of patients with diseases of the pachychoroid spectrum – a retrospective study
Trittenwein, J. (Author). 2025
Student thesis: Diploma thesis