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. 2023 May;37(7):1314-1319.
doi: 10.1038/s41433-022-02112-4. Epub 2022 Jun 1.

Ability of Swept-source OCT and OCT-angiography to detect neuroretinal and vasculature changes in patients with Parkinson disease and essential tremor

Maria Satue  1   2 , Luisa Castro  3   4 , Elisa Vilades  3   4 , Beatriz Cordon  3   4 , Jose M Errea  5 , Ana Pueyo  5 , Eva Pilar Chueca  6 , Elena Garcia-Martin  3   4
Affiliations

Ability of Swept-source OCT and OCT-angiography to detect neuroretinal and vasculature changes in patients with Parkinson disease and essential tremor

Maria Satue et al. Eye (Lond). 2023 May.

Abstract

Background/objectives: To evaluate the ability of swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) implemented with angiography analysis (SS-OCTA) to detect neuro-retinal and vasculature changes in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET), and to distinguish between both pathologies.

Subjects/methods: A total 42 PD and 26 ET patients and 146 controls underwent retinal evaluation using SS-OCT plus OCT-Angio™. The macular (m) and peripapillary (p) retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell layer (GCL), and macular vasculature were assessed. A Linear discriminant function (LDF) was calculated to evaluate the diagnostic ability of SS-OCTA in both PD and ET.

Results: PD patients presented a reduction in mRNFL (p < 0.005), mGCL (all sectors, p < 0.05) and pRNFL (p < 0.005) vs healthy controls, and in mRNFL and pRNFL vs ET patients (p < 0.001). ET patients showed a significant reduction in mGCL vs controls (p < 0.001). No differences were observed in the macular vasculature between groups. Predictive diagnostic variables were significant only for PD and a LDF was obtained with an area under the ROC curve of 0.796.

Conclusions: Neuro-retinal thinning is present in both diseases, being greater in PD. While SS-OCT could be useful in diagnosing ET and PD, the diagnostic potential for SS-OCTA based on an LDF applies only to PD, not ET.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no competing interests. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Vasculature analysis obtained using Triton (Topcon, Japan) SS-OCT angiography in a healthy subject included in the study.
The vascular plexus can be displayed throughout different ocular levels: superficial (A), deep (B), outer retina (C) and choriocapilaris (D). Objective measurements are automatically calculated for the superficial plexus (from the inner limiting membrane to the inner plexiform layer –marked with an arrow–) as the percentage of the scanned area (in four quadrants and central area) occupied by the lumens of the vessels (E).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Macular measurements of the ganglion cell layer in controls, Parkinson’s disease (PD), and essential tremor (ET) patients.
An asterisk (*) marks statistical differences between PD patients and controls. A dagger (†) marks differences between ET and healthy eyes. No significant differences were observed between PD and ET in the GCL measurements.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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