Retinal thickness changes following photodynamic therapy in chronic central serous chorioretinopathy

To evaluate changes in neural retina (NR) thickness and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) induced by treatment of chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) by photodynamic therapy (PDT). Retrospective study of 25 eyes of 25 patients with chronic CSC treated by "full-fluence" PDT. LogMAR BCVA and Stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT) were evaluated before treatment and 1 year after PDT. Twenty-four eyes from 24 patients with non-chronic, non-PDT-treated forms of CSC were evaluated as a control group. NR foveal thickness before PDT was 182 +/- 43.4 mu m (range, 92-246) vs 148.1 +/- 30.9 mu m (range, 101-220) 1 year after treatment ( = 0.004; Student's -test paired data). NR foveal thickness in the untreated eyes was 204.6 +/- 30.7 mu (range, 132-249) vs 192.5 +/- 26.4 mu (range, 123-235) after self-resolution ( = 0.03; Student's -test paired data). Basal NR thickness was statistically significant different between both groups ( = 0.04; Student's -test); this difference continued to be significant at the end of the follow-up ( < 0.01; Student's -test). All the patients with chronic CSC treated by PDT showed anatomic resolution, and BCVA improved from 0.38 +/- 0.35 to 0.23 +/- 0.29 ( = 0.007; Student's -test paired data). Final BCVA and basal and final NR thickness showed poor correlation (Pearson = 0.2 and 0.1 respectively). The use of PDT in chronic CSC induces NR thickness thinning. This change is not correlated with a decrease in BCVA. Spontaneous resolution of classic CCS also showed significant NR thinning.