Association between macular and papillary vessel density by optical coherence tomography angiography in a large healthy population

Purpose: To provide a normative data set of the relationship between macular and papillary vessel density (VD) using swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) in a large healthy population.Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted on 346 right eyes of healthy subjects. Macular and papillary SS-OCTA VD measurements of the retinal superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), and chorioca-pillaris (CC) in the central area and the four quadrants were obtained. Correlations between macular and papillary VD among different quadrants were assessed.Results: The mean participant age was 37.7 +/- 19.8 years (range 5-83); 59% were women. No correlation was detected neither for the global SCP (R = 0.050; P = 0.040), DCP (R =-0.056; P = 0.038) nor CC (R = 0.102; P < 0.001) between macular and papillary VD. In a subanalysis, there was also no correlation in any of the quadrants studied (R <= 0.180; P < 0.001). In a subgroup of 45 left eyes, there was no correlation in the different plexus and layers studied between macular and papillary vasculature. No differences in SCP, DCP and CC were found ac-cording to gender, age or axial length in the relationship between macular and papillary VD.Conclusion: There is no association between macular and papillary VD neither in the SCP, DCP or CC in any of the regions studied. Hence, macular and optic nerve head vascularization should be investigated separately to identify which structure is more relevant in each disease.