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Progressive Changes in the Retinal Structure of Patients with Parkinson's Disease
Li-Jing Ma1, Ling-Li Xu1, Cheng-Jie Mao1
1Department of Neurology and Suzhou Clinical Research Center of Neurological Disease, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Background:
Many optical coherence tomography (OCT) studies have reported alterations in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. However, whether retinal alterations are a biomarker for PD is still controversial.
Objective:
To investigate potential correlations between PD and morphological changes in retina using OCT and to determine its usefulness as a biomarker of disease progression in PD.
Methods:
We performed a cross-sectional study on patients with PD (N = 37) and age-matched controls (N = 42), followed by a longitudinal study of the PD patients (N = 22) over approximately 2.5 years.
Results:
The average retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness (p < 0.001), total macular thickness (p = 0.001), and macular volume (p = 0.001) were decreased in PD patients compared to controls and had further decreased at the follow-up visit (p < 0.05 for all). The average RNFL thickness and the total thickness of macular were negatively correlated with age in PD patients at baseline. Linear regression analysis revealed that age (p = 0.002, p = 0.003, respectively) and LEDD (p = 0.011, p = 0.013, respectively) were correlated to total thickness and volume of macular in 22 PD patients in the follow-up study. However, no correlation was found between RNFL and other parameters.
Conclusions:
PD progression is associated with pronounced retinal structure changes, which can be quantified by OCT. Patterns of RNFL and macular damage detected by the noninvasive technology of OCT can be a useful biomarker for evaluating the progression of PD.