Quantitative Analysis of Macular Retina Using Light Reflection Indices Derived from SD-OCT for Pituitary Adenoma

To quantitatively investigate the macular retinal light reflection characteristic using optical property indices derived from spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) scans with depth attenuation compensation for pituitary adenoma.

This study included 38 patients (mean age 44.66 ± 13.77 years old) with diagnosis of pituitary adenoma and 43 age-matched controls. All SD-OCT scans were light attenuation compensated by a depth-resolved model. Attenuation coefficient, the corrected intensity, and the retinal layer thickness were deduced for macular retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell layer combined with inner plexiform layer (GCIPL), as well as comparing between patients and controls by statistical methods.

Attenuation coefficients of RNFL and GCIPL among patients were significantly lower compared to the controls with P values equal to or less than 0.001. The mean values of the corrected optical intensity were decreased in the patients without universally significant differences. Significant decreases in thickness existing in the RNFL of patients, especially in the superonasal (SN) quadrant and inferonasal (IN) quadrant (decrease ratio = 9.64% and 13.02%, both with P < 0.001). The thickness of RNFL was significantly associated with the attenuation coefficient (standardized beta = 0.335, P=0.002). The performances of attenuation coefficient were better than the corrected optical intensity and the thickness (the values of the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves = 0.751 and 0.758, both with P < 0.001) in discriminating pituitary adenoma patients from controls.

The retinal light reflection characteristics were debilitated in patients with pituitary adenoma. The potential of attenuation coefficients of RNFL and GCIPL in distinguishing patients with pituitary adenoma from controls was validated by the comparison of the derived optical property indices.