Role of optical coherence tomography angiography in the diagnosis and treatment of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

Polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) is a disease characterized by polypoidal lesions and/or branching vascular networks (BVN), with recurrent serous or hemorrhagic retinal pigment epithelial detachment as manifestations, and causes loss of central vision.Although PCV is considered to be a subtype of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), its response to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment is somewhat different from that of nAMD, which makes it essential to make a definitive diagnosis of PCV.The gold standard for PCV diagnosis is indocyanine green angiography (ICGA), but ICGA has disadvantages such as allergies, invasive examinations, and not being widely popularized.Compared with ICGA, optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) can detect the BVN of PCV patients more precisely, and its combination with optical coherence tomography, color fundus photography and other multimodal imaging technologies can significantly improve the detection rate of polypoidal lesions.In addition, OCTA can present the location, morphology, three-dimensional anatomical structure and origin of polyps and BVN.Besides, OCTA is able to assess prognosis in PCV patients, and because OCTA is a non-invasive examination, it can be repeatedly used in the treatment monitoring of PCV patients.This article sums and discusses the role of OCTA in the diagnosis and treatment of PCV.