Assessment of macular choroidal thickness, central macular thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer in patients receiving oral isotretinoin treatment

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the impact of oral isotretinoin therapy in choroidal thickness, central macular thickness (CMT), and retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness using optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Patients and methods

Choroidal thicknesses, CMT, and RNFL thickness of 64 eyes were evaluated at baseline and the end of the third month of isotretinoin therapy by spectral-domain OCT. For assessment of choroidal thickness, OCT measurements were obtained at the fovea with 6 additional measurements at adjacent locations (at 500–1000–1500 µm temporal to the fovea and 500–1000–1500 µm nasal to the fovea).

Results

There was not a statistically significant difference between the baseline and third-month follow-up measurements of choroidal thicknesses at seven distinct locations (p > 0.05). Similarly, RNFL thickness and CMT did not change with a mean dose of 30 (±6) mg per day isotretinoin therapy during follow-up (101.82 vs 102.24, p = 0.079; 217.77 vs 217.25, p = 0.731, respectively).

Conclusion

After the use of oral isotretinoin for 3 months, no significant side effects have been observed in choroidal thickness, CMT, and RNFL thickness by OCT.

Keywords:

• Oral isotretinoin therapy
• optical coherence tomography
• choroidal thickness
• macular thickness
• retinal nerve fiber layer

Author contributions

The authors certify that they take responsibility for the entire work, and they agree that any questions related to the work in the future are appropriately and fully investigated. OK acquired the clinical data, contributed to the design of the work, performed all the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. MK and MD contributed to data interpretation and critical revision of the data and the manuscript. SOD acquired the clinical data, contributed to patient selection, and consulted the dermatological follow-up.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.