Retinal Flow Density Changes in Early-stage Parkinson’s Disease Investigated by Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

ABSTRACT

Background: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease affecting the elderly population. The eye has been referred to as a window to the brain due to its inseparable relationship with the central nervous system. The development of Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography (SS-OCT) and Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) technologies has offered us a better imaging modality to study the impact of PD on the retina.

Method: Seventy-five eyes of 42 early-stage PD patients and 150 eyes of 75 matched healthy controls were enrolled in the current study. We performed SS-OCT and SS-OCTA to assess retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell layer (GCL) + inner plexiform layer (IPL), internal nuclear layer (INL) thickness, and retinal flow density and flow ratio.

Results: Our study indicates decreasing superficial and deep flow density in most regions of the retina. Superficial and deep flow parameters were also associated with RNFL, GCL+IPL, and INL thickness. ROC analysis reveals superficial flow density demonstrated an Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.688, which is greater than deep flow density and retinal thickness measurements.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, we are the first study using SS-OCT and SS-OCTA to study superficial and deep retinal flow changes in early-stage PD patients. Our study suggests decreasing retinal flow density provides greater diagnostic power than retinal thickness measurements in the early stage of PD. SS-OCTA parameters could potentially serve as imaging biomarkers in PD diagnosis and staging.

KEYWORDS:

• Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Retinal Flow

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Declaration

All authors report no conflicts of interest. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee on Biomedical Research of West China Hospital and conducted under the Declaration of Helsinki. Written patient consents for participation and publication were required. The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request. This work was supported by The Project Of National Key Research and Development (2018YFC1106103).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Project Of National Key Research and Development [2018YFC1106103].