Cystoid macular edema: a correlation between macular volumetric parameters and visual acuity

Objective: To study in patients with cystoid macular edema(CME) the correlation between macular volumetric parameters on ocular coherence tomography (OCT) and visual acuity (VA). Design: A retrospective consecutive cohort design was used. Participants: The sample included 167 examinations of 92 consecutive patients (130 eyes). Methods: Patients underwent spectral-domain OCT for CME from the years 2008 to 2010 at a tertiary medical centre. Background and VA data were recorded from the files. The custom-developed Cystometer software was used to calculate volumetric parameters from the OCT videos. Results: In univariate analyses, VA correlated best with cystoid macular volume (CMVol; R-2 = 8.57) and total macular volume (TMV; R-2 = 7.46). By underlying disease, the strongest correlation was found with CMVol (R-2 = 8.47) in patients with diabetic CME (n - 91) and with TMV (R-2 - 22.18) in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion (n - 46). In multiple regression analyses, TMV, age, and CMVol/TMV accounted for 17.57% of the variation in VA. In the diabetic CME group, CMVol/TMV and age accounted for 15.34% of the variation; in the branch retinal vein occlusion group, TMV accounted for 22.18% of the variation. Conclusions: Macular volumetric parameters measured by OCT and Cystometer software significantly correlate with VA in patients with CME, with variations by underlying CME causative factor.