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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Epilepsy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1529409

Optical coherence tomography angiography in patients with focal epilepsy

Provisionally accepted
Flora K Rider Flora K Rider 1*Alla Guekht Alla Guekht 1,2Alexander A Shpak Alexander A Shpak 1,3
  • 1 Moscow Research and Clinical Center for Neuropsychiatry, Moscow, Russia
  • 2 Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
  • 3 S. Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Federal State Institution, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: To compare optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) data in individuals with focal epilepsy and healthy people, and to investigate the effect of antiseizure medications (ASM) on OCTA data.Methods: We examined 48 consecutive patients with focal epilepsy and 46 healthy controls. Area and skeleton density of superficial and deep capillary plexuses in the macular area and peripapillary radial capillary plexus were measured.Results: In general, no differences in OCTA parameters were found between groups of people with epilepsy and healthy individuals. Comparison of people with epilepsy with and without comorbid major depressive disorder revealed no differences in OCTA data. However, area and skeleton densities of perfused capillary retinal vascular bed in macular region showed a negative association with the use of valproates and modifiers of the presynaptic release machinery, whereas only the skeleton density of the deep capillary plexus showed a positive association with the use of modulators of voltage-gated sodium channels.Conclusions: OCTA demonstrated different effects of several ASM groups on the perfused macular capillary bed. It is suggested that OCTA parameters may be potential biomarkers of ASM effects on small vessels and capillaries in the brain.

    Keywords: optical coherence tomography angiography, Epilepsy, antiseizure medications, Retinal capillaries, Major Depressive Disorder

    Received: 16 Nov 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Rider, Guekht and Shpak. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Flora K Rider, Moscow Research and Clinical Center for Neuropsychiatry, Moscow, Russia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.