ANGIOGRAPHIC ABNORMALITIES OF EXPERIMENTAL AUTOIMMUNE UVEORETINITIS

Purpose. Experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) is an invaluable animal model for studying inflammatory eye disease in humans. Indocyan ine green (ICG) is a fluorescent dye that can be used to image both re tinal and choroidal vessels. This study was performed to examine the r etinal and choroidal vascular abnormalities of a rat model of EAU usin g ICG and fluorescein as the contrast media and to assess the suitabil ity of this model for studying ICG angiographic abnormalities in infla mmatory eye disease in humans. Methods. Twenty-six male black-hooded L ister rats were inoculated with bovine retinal S-antigen plus adjuvant with or without Bordetella pertussis antigen. Fluorescein and ICG ang iograms were performed at different stages of clinical disease with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope. Results. EAU was a more severe and prim arily choroidal disease in rats given Bordetella pertussis, but no ani mals showed evidence of dye leakage from large choroidal vessels. Ther e was frank leakage of indocyanine green from retinal vessels. Leakage of both fluorescein and ICG from retinal vessels largely correlated w ith disease activity. Retinal pigment epithelial lesions either corres ponded to areas of hypofluorescence on the ICG angiogram alone or were represented by areas of ICG hyperfluorescence that had overlying area s of fluorescein leakage from retinal capillaries. Conclusions. This s tudy has demonstrated the vascular abnormalities of this model of EAU using ICG and fluorescein as the contrast media. The suitability of th is model for studying ICG angiographic abnormalities in inflammatory e ye disease in humans is encouraging.