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.

摘要

背景：帕金森病 (PD) 是影响老年人群的第二大常见神经退行性疾病。由于与中枢神经系统密不可分，眼睛被称为大脑的窗口。扫描源光学相干断层扫描 (SS-OCT) 和光学相干断层血管造影 (OCTA) 技术的发展为我们提供了更好的成像方式来研究 PD 对视网膜的影响。

方法：本研究纳入了 42 名早期 PD 患者的 75 只眼和 75 名匹配的健康对照者的 150 只眼。我们进行了 SS-OCT 和 SS-OCTA 以评估视网膜神经纤维层 (RNFL)、神经节细胞层 (GCL) + 内丛状层 (IPL)、内核层 (INL) 厚度以及视网膜流量密度和流量比。

结果：我们的研究表明视网膜大部分区域的浅层和深层流动密度降低。浅层和深层流动参数也与 RNFL、GCL+IPL 和 INL 厚度相关。ROC 分析显示，表层流动密度显示曲线下面积 (AUC) 为 0.688，大于深层流动密度和视网膜厚度测量值。

结论：据我们所知，我们是第一个使用 SS-OCT 和 SS-OCTA 研究早期 PD 患者浅层和深层视网膜血流变化的研究。我们的研究表明，在 PD 早期，降低视网膜血流密度比测量视网膜厚度提供了更大的诊断能力。SS-OCTA 参数可能作为 PD 诊断和分期的成像生物标志物。