Retinal and Choroidal Changes in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease Detected by Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

Significant peripapillary retinal thinning was observed in PD patients in total average (p = 0.017), in the nasal (p = 0.038) and temporal (p = 0.004) quadrants and in superotemporal (p = 0.004), nasal (p = 0.039), inferotemporal (p = 0.019), and temporal (p = 0.003) sectors. RNFL and GCL ++ thickness showed a significant reduction in the inferotemporal sector (p = 0.026 and 0.009, respectively). No differences were observed in macular retinal thickness between controls and patients. Choroidal thickness was found to have increased in all sectors in PD patients compared with controls, both in the macular (inner nasal, p = 0.015; inner inferior, p = 0.030; outer nasal, p = 0.012; outer inferior, p = 0.049) and the peripapillary area (total thickness, p = 0.011; nasal, p = 0.025; inferior, p = 0.007; temporal, p = 0.003; inferotemporal, p = 0.003; inferonasal, p = 0.016) Conclusion: New SS technology for OCT devices detects retinal thinning in PD patients, providing increased depth analysis of the choroid in these patients. The choroid in PD may present increased thickness compared to healthy individuals; however, more studies and histological analysis are needed to corroborate our findings.

Changes in peripapillary choroidal thickness in patients with multiple sclerosis

“…This visual path atrophy may be involved in the physiopathological mechanism of choroidal thinning in patients with MS (Satue et al. ).…”

Rhodopsin: A Potential Biomarker for Neurodegenerative Diseases

“…In recent years, retinal thinning has become heavily associated with neurodegenerative diseases of the brain (Helmer et al, 2013;Sivak, 2013). There have been correlations established between retinal thinning and Alzheimer's disease (Chiquita et al, 2019;Cipollini et al, 2019;den Haan et al, 2019), Parkinson's disease (Ahn et al, 2018;Satue et al, 2018), Huntington's disease (Dhalla et al, 2019), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Hubers et al, 2016;Mukherjee et al, 2017), and a case has been reported of reduced retinal thickness after an occipital lobe infarction (Tanito and Ohira, 2013). Given this, it is important that we consider exploring biomarkers of the retina as possible routes of monitoring and diagnosing these debilitating neurodegenerative diseases.…”

“…Should screening become possible at earlier stages, clinicians can better intervene in the progression of these diseases. Retinal alterations have recently been associated with numerous neurodegenerative diseases (Helmer et al, 2013;Sivak, 2013;Tanito and Ohira, 2013;Hubers et al, 2016;Mukherjee et al, 2017;Sudharsan et al, 2017;Ahn et al, 2018;Satue et al, 2018;Chiquita et al, 2019;Cipollini et al, 2019;den Haan et al, 2019;Dhalla et al, 2019). Rhodopsin, a G-protein coupled receptor in the rod cells of the retina is a biomarker associated with retinal thinning and degeneration (Cideciyan et al, 2005;Xiong and Bellen, 2013), suggesting its potential in the early detection and progression monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases.…”

Changes in subfoveal choroidal thickness after uncomplicated cataract surgery

“…Swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) uses a longer wavelength than spectral domain OCT, penetrates tissues better and enables us to visualise the choroid 3 . Choroidal changes are evaluated in various systemic 4 and ocular [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] disorders.…”