Peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer changes in asymptomatic essential thrombocythemia patients

To investigate peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) changes using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in patients with asymptomatic essential thrombocythemia (ET).

A consecutive case-control series of 30 patients with asymptomatic ET and age-similar, gender, refractive error, race-matched controls underwent a comprehensive eye examination and OCT of the peripapillary RNFL. Subjects with glaucoma, diabetes mellitus, hemoglobinopaties or other ocular diseases and those who underwent any retinal treatment were excluded. Inferior, superior, nasal and temporal peripapillary RNFL thicknesses were analyzed. One randomly selected eye per subject was compared with those of healthy ones.

In the ET patients, the peripapillary RNFL thickness was particularly thin at the temporal quadrant (61.38 ± 9.82 μm, mean ± SD), and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.036) when compared with the control group (71.24 ± 10.28 μm). The average RNFL thickness was 88.73 ± 12.26 μm in the ET patients and 96.91 ± 13.66 μm in the control group. Although the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.226), the average RNFL was 8.44% thinner in ET patients than in healthy subjects.

Asymptomatic ET patients may have peripapillary RNFL thinning as a result of their systemic illness. This study is the first to demonstrate peripapillary RFNL changes in asymptomatic ET patients.