ReviewCureus2026
Retinal and Choroidal Structural and Microvascular Characteristics in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and OCT Angiography (OCTA) Studies.
Review in Cureus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Evaluation of Macular Thickness, Choroidal Thickness, and Choroidal Vascularity Index in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of ophthalmology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex endocrine disorder that involves metabolic, hormonal, and inflammatory changes. These changes can affect tissues with high metabolic needs and sensitive microvascular systems. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) are non-invasive ways to assess the structure and blood vessels of the retina and choroid. However, studies on women with PCOS have shown mixed results. This systematic review and meta-analysis set out to combine and analyze the available evidence on how PCOS affects retinal structure and microvasculature. We searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, and Google Scholar from inception to February 1, 2026, for observational studies comparing OCT and OCTA results in women with PCOS and healthy controls. The main outcomes were average peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, central macular thickness (CMT), subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), and vessel density in the superficial and deep capillary plexus (SCP, DCP). We used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) to check study quality and the GRADE framework to rate the certainty of the evidence. We performed random-effects meta-analyses using mean differences (MDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We included 15 observational studies with a total of 1,370 women (737 with PCOS and 633 controls), and 13 studies were used in the quantitative analysis. Women with PCOS had a higher average RNFL thickness (MD +3.75 µm; 95% CI 2.48 to 5.01; moderate-certainty evidence) and a small but significant decrease in CMT (MD -3.29 µm; 95% CI -6.46 to -0.11; moderate certainty) compared to controls. SFCT was also higher overall (MD +58.03 µm), but there was a lot of variation between studies (
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.