{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,19]],"date-time":"2026-05-19T13:05:21Z","timestamp":1779195921084,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,19]],"date-time":"2025-03-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1742342400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Neurosci."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Carotid artery stenosis (CAS) is a common vascular condition that can impair retinal and optic nerve blood supply, leading to ocular ischemic damage. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) provides a non-invasive method to evaluate retinal microcirculation and detect vascular changes in CAS patients.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study utilized OCTA to evaluate changes in retinal microcirculation in CAS patients before and after carotid artery angioplasty and stenting. A 6\u202f\u00d7\u202f6\u202fmm OCTA scan was performed to analyze deep retinal vascular complex (DVC) blood flow density, foveal avascular zone area (FAZA), foveal density within a 300\u202f\u03bcm-wide ring surrounding the FAZ (FD-300), and radial peripapillary capillary vessel density (RPC-VD). Additionally, ultra-wide-field OCTA imaging (24\u202f\u00d7\u202f20\u202fmm) was employed to comprehensively assess perfusion in both the posterior pole and peripheral retina.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Following carotid artery angioplasty and stenting, significant improvements were observed in the ipsilateral eye, including increased macular blood flow density (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u202f=\u202f0.004), FD-300 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u202f=\u202f0.031), RPC-VD (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u202f=\u202f0.028) and decreased FAZA (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u202f=\u202f0.018) in the deep retinal vascular layer, indicating enhanced retinal microcirculation. No statistically significant changes were found in the contralateral eye. In some cases, ultra-wide-field OCTA revealed a reduction in macular non-perfusion areas in the ipsilateral eye, alongside an increase in non-perfusion areas near the vascular arcades.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Carotid artery angioplasty and stenting effectively improves retinal microcirculation in CAS patients, as evidenced by increased blood flow density and reduced non-perfusion areas in the ipsilateral eye. OCTA is a valuable non-invasive tool for assessing retinal circulation dynamics, identifying microvascular abnormalities, and monitoring treatment efficacy in CAS patients.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnins.2025.1557062","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,19]],"date-time":"2025-03-19T07:11:41Z","timestamp":1742368301000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Investigation of retinal microcirculation alterations following carotid artery angioplasty and stenting using optical coherence tomography angiography"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Zehui","family":"Shi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chunqiong","family":"Dong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hanfei","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Daqiao","family":"Guo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xianglian","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bing","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiao","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiuping","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4299","DOI":"10.1167\/iovs.18-24090","article-title":"The EYE-MI pilot study: a prospective acute coronary syndrome cohort evaluated with retinal optical coherence tomography angiography","volume":"59","author":"Arnould","year":"2018","journal-title":"Invest. 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