Retinal thickness assessed by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in pseudophakic macular edema.

PURPOSE To evaluate the usefulness of the optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal map in angiographic pseudophakic macular edema (ACME). METHODS This is a prospective analysis of a group of 36 pseudophakic eyes at the fifth postoperative week, submitted to optical coherence tomography 2 macular map and fluorescein angiography on the same day and, a control group of twenty-two 20/20 vision eyes with a minimum 6-month postoperative period, submitted to optical coherence tomography 2 macular map only. Exclusion criteria were diabetes, any macular pathology and unreadable optical coherence tomography or angiogram. The angiograms were divided into three groups according to the edema intensity: Group I: level 0 (absence of angiographic pseudophakic macular edema); group II: levels 1 and 2 (incomplete and complete perifoveal angiographic pseudophakic macular edema respectively) and group III: levels 3 and 4 (up to one disc diameter and greater than one disc diameter angiographic pseudophakic macular edema area respectively). The nine zones of the optical coherence tomography macular map were compared between the control and the three subgroups of the study group and, between group I and groups II and III. RESULTS Among the 36 eyes, 23 (64%) were classified as group I, 10 (28%) as group II and three (8%) as group III. The mean thickness of the fovea zone was 185+/-15 microm for the control group, 189+/-24 microm for group I, 213+/-33 microm for group II and 455+/-38 microm for group III. Significant differences: between group III and the control or group I for all zones (p<0.01) and, between group II and control or group I for the fovea and temporal inner zones (p<0.05). CONCLUSION The optical coherence tomography retinal map is useful in angiographic pseudophakic macular edema diagnosis.