Retinal Neurovascular Signatures in Parkinson's Disease

This study aimed to investigate retinal neurovascular signatures in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) using multimodal neurovascular imaging.

Fifteen patients with clinically diagnosed PD and eighteen age-matched healthy controls (HC) controls were recruited. Retinal blood flow (RBF) was measured using a retinal function imager. Retinal vessel density (RVD), retinal vessel length density (RVLD), and corresponding retinal tissue volume (RTV) were assessed using optical coherence tomography angiography. Retinal tissue perfusion (RTP) was computed as RBF normalized by RTV and retinal capillary function (RCF) as RBF normalized by RVLD.

Patients with PD exhibited significantly lower RBF, RTP, and RCF than HC (P < 0.001). RVD, RVLD, and RTV showed no significant difference between groups (P > 0.05). Additionally, the retinovascular variables RBF, RVD, RVLD, and RTV did not share a linear relationship with one another (P > 0.05).

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate retinal neurovascular signatures and provides novel insights into the interplay between retinal microstructure, microvasculature, and microcirculation in PD. Multimodal retinal imaging may offer a valuable window into the disease mechanism of PD.