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Purpose: To evaluate retinal and choroidal microvascular features of VKH patients in acute and convalescent phases after treatment using OCTA.Methods: A prospective, observational study was conducted in patients with initial VKH at the acute stage (n = 15) and healthy participants (n = 15) served as controls. After 3-month systemic corticosteroid treatment, patients' vascular parameters were recorded by OCTA before and after treatment and compared with results observed in healthy participants.Results: Our findings first uncovered that there are two types of abnormalities in the choriocapillary layer of patients with VKH in the acute stage: one is characterized as multiple dark spots of choriocapillary flow void and the other involves highly reflective areas surrounded by light spots with an increased flow area. During the convalescent stage, all eyes showed multifocal dark spots in the choriocapillary layer, leading to a reduced choroidal flow area.Conclusions: OCTA provides a better display of the microvascular appearance of the choroid to noninvasively evaluate choriocapillaris abnormalities in VKH disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathological ocular angiogenesis is a significant cause of irreversible vision loss and blindness worldwide. Currently, most studies have focused on the angiogenesis factors in ocular vascular diseases, and very few endogenous anti-angiogenic compounds have been found. Moreover, although inflammation is closely related to the predominant processes involved in angiogenesis, the mechanisms by which inflammation regulates pathological ocular angiogenesis remain obscure. In this study, a vascular endothelial cells (VECs)-specific anti-angiogenic factor is identified, apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1(ASK1)-interacting protein-1 (AIP1) as a key pathogenic regulator in a typical ocular angiogenesis model, oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR), using single-cell RNA sequencing. It is demonstrated that AIP1 inhibited pathological angiogenesis by preventing a particular inflammatory death pathway, namely pyroptosis, in retinal VECs. The assembly of a noncanonical inflammasome is further uncovered, the NLRP12-ASC-caspase-8 inflammasome, which is promoted by decreased AIP1 in OIR. This inflammasome elicited gasdermin D (GSDMD)-dependent endothelial pyroptosis, which in turn promoted the release of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin (IL)-1β. Suppression of NLRP12-CASP8-GSDMD axis and AIP1 upregulation reduced VEGF signaling, limiting new vessel formation. These findings reveal a previously uncharacterized inflammatory angiogenic process involving VECs pyroptosis-inducing retinal neovascularization, paving the way for promising therapeutic avenues targeting angiogenesis via AIP1 or pyroptosis., (© 2024 The Author(s). Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)