Category: Parkinson's Disease: Neuroimaging
Objective: To compare optical coherence tomography (OCT) results of retinal thickness (RT) and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFLT) thickness of patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (IPD) to those from healthy subjects, and from research if there is a relationship between disease severity and RNFLT values
Background: At this time, the pathophysiological mechanism of retinal thinning in Parkinson’s disease is not known, and it is not clear how it affects visual processing of information. It is possible that retinal testing may be a biomarker of disease progression and a predictor of visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease that has recently been highlighted by recent studies.
Method: This is a prospective study including 60 parkinsonian patients without additional ophthalmologic pathologies and 60 healthy patients of the same age. In the IPD group, the Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) tests, the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) were studied. All patients underwent a comprehensive ophthalmologic examination and OCT with analysis of papillary and macular RNFL, macula thickness and ganglion cell layer. The results collected will be compared with several studies found in the scientific literature which highlight visual disturbances in people with Parkinson’s disease.
Results: Average age is 56 years old, Sex ratio M / F is 1.72. OCT found that Parkinson’s patients do not present significantly finer peripapillary retinal fiber (p = 0 , 2). It has shown that PD patients have reduced thicknesses of the ganglion cell layers. Significant differences were observed between Parkinson’s patients and controls especially at the centro-foveolar level and at the temporal and lower quadrant level
Conclusion: A standard protocol for OCT studies in Parkinson’s disease with more precise measurements of the retinal layers is to be developed in the future, and may, perhaps, become a biomarker of this pathology.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
N. Chtaou, S. Bouchal, A. El Midaoui, Z. Souirti, M F. Belahsen, M. Bouhlal. Interest of optical coherence tomography in Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2021; 36 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/interest-of-optical-coherence-tomography-in-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed May 18, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2021
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/interest-of-optical-coherence-tomography-in-parkinsons-disease/