Thicker macula in asymptomatic APOE Ɛ4 middle‐aged adults at high AD risk

Abstract

Introduction We compared retinal layers’ thickness between apolipoprotein E (APOE) Ɛ4 carriers and non‐carriers in a cohort of cognitively normal middle‐aged adults enriched for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. Methods Participants (N = 245) underwent spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Multivariate analyses of covariance adjusting for age, sex, education, and best corrected vision acuity was used to compare retinal thickness between APOE groups. Results Participants’ mean age was 59.60 (standard deviation = 6.42) with 66.4% women and 32.2% APOE Ɛ4 carriers. Greater macular full thickness was observed in APOE Ɛ4 carriers compared to non‐carriers (P = .017), reaching statistical significance for the inner and outer nasal (P = .009 and P = .005, respectively), inner superior (P = .041), and inner and outer inferior (P = .013 and P = .033, respectively) sectors. The differences between APOE groups were mainly driven by the ganglion cell layer (P < .05) and the inner plexiform layer (P < .05). Discussion A thicker macula is observed already in midlife asymptomatic APOE Ɛ4 carriers at high AD risk.

Associations of inner retinal layers with risk of incident dementia: An individual participant data analysis of four prospective cohort studies

“…We adjusted for covariables in Model 2 in a separate model as these factors are weaker determinants of dementia than the covariables entered in Model 1. We did not include APOE genotype status in the model because the association of APOE genotype status with retinal thickness remains largely unknown as few data are available on this association 17,18 . Missing data on covariables were imputed using multiple imputation analysis (more details in the Supporting Information).…”

“…We did not include APOE genotype status in the model because the association of APOE genotype status with retinal thickness remains largely unknown as few data are available on this association. 17,18 Missing data on covariables were imputed using multiple imputation analysis (more details in the Supporting Information). 19 To visualize the associations between retinal thickness indices and incident dementia we plotted Kaplan-Meier curves.…”