The depigmentation degree of iris pigment epithelium in pseudoexfoliation syndrome

To compare the optical density of iris pigment epithelium (OD_IPE) and iris stromal thickness (IST) measurements in patients having pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PXS) and age-gender matched participants.

This is a cross-sectional study. Patients with PXS were enrolled in the study group. Age and gender-matched healthy subjects with no evidence of PXS were recruited as controls. After a comprehensive ophthalmological evaluation, the anterior segment images were acquired using anterior segment spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (AS SD-OCT). The acquired pictures were further analyzed using the ImageJ program. Two investigators measured the OD_IPE and the IST of the subjects, and the repeatability and reproducibility were checked. SPSS program was used for statistical analysis.

The PXS group was comprised of twenty-two eyes (n = 22 patients), and the control group contained twenty-six eyes of 26 age and gender-matched healthy subjects. The mean temporal OD_IPE of the study group was found to be decreased significantly in comparison to the mean temporal OD_IPE of the control eye (p = 0.018). Both the mean nasal (N) and temporal (T) ISTs of the PEX eyes were thinner than the control eyes (p = 0.006 and p = 0.002, respectively). The mean baseline IOP was found to significantly negatively correlate with the OD_IPE in the PEX group at both N and T sides (r = -0.531, p = 0.011 and r = -0.685, p < 0.001, respectively).

The pupillary margin IPE was found more depigmented, and the mean N and T IST were significantly thinner in the PEX group by comparison with the age-gender matched healthy controls. The mean baseline IOP was negatively correlated with the pupillary margin's IPE pigmentation degree in patients with PXS.