Premium
Optical coherence tomography in the evaluation of patients with mild cognitive impairment of amnestic type
Author(s) -
CASAS P,
CRUZ N,
ASCASO FJ,
PASCUAL LF,
LOBO A,
JIMENEZ B,
CABEZON L,
CRISTOBAL JA
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2011.318.x
Subject(s) - medicine , ophthalmology , optical coherence tomography , nerve fiber layer , retinal , macular degeneration , dementia , cognitive impairment , audiology , disease
Purpose Some cases of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) represent the earliest clinically detectable phase of the trajectory toward dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD).To our knowledge, neither macular retinal thickness nor macular volume have been previously documented in vivo in aMCI patients. The aims of this study were to determine the differences in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness between aMCI patients and control subjects. Methods We compared by optical coherence tomography (OCT) 40 eyes of twenty aMCI patients (15 males and 5 females, mean age: 70.4±8.9 years; range: 50‐88) to 40 eyes from twenty age‐matched healthy controls (10 males and 10 females, mean age: 69.8±6.3 years; range: 58‐85), measuring peripapillary RNFL thickness, macular thickness and volume. Results Overall RNFL thickness was within 94.9 and 128.8 µm (mean: 107.1 ± 7.2 µm) in control subjects and within 32.0 and 102.1 µm (mean: 84.5 ± 11.4 µm) in a‐MCI patients. The difference was statistically significant (p=0.0001, Mann‐Whitney U test). Peripapillary RNFL thickness evaluated in all the separate quadrants (superior, inferior, nasal and temporal) of aMCI patients was also significantly reduced when compared with that of control subjects. Nevertheless, macular thickness and volume are increased in aMCI patients compared to control subjects. We found no significant correlation between Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores and OCT values. Conclusion These findings suggest that neuronal degeneration could be present in the retina of aMCI patients as previously observed in patients with AD.