Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Optical Coherence Tomography Study
Abstract
Background: To evaluate changes in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Methods: In this case-controlled study, COPD subjectswith various disease durations andseverity were recruited. The standard global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) criteria was used to determine the severity of COPD in the subjects.Healthy individuals were recruited as the control group. Peripapillary RNFL thickness was measured using spectral domain OCT.
Results: Seventy oneeyes of71 COPD patients and 71 eyes ofhealthy controls were examined. The RNFL in all quadrants and the average RNFL were significantly thinner in patients with COPD compared to the control group (p<0.05). There were significant correlationsbetween severity of COPD and RNFL thickness (p<0.05) for the average RNFL (r=0.831) and RNFL in all quadrants(superior RNFLr=0.736, inferior RNFL r=0.681, nasal RNFL r=0.600, andtemporal RNFL r=0.353). Similar significant correlations were found between RNFL thickness and duration of COPD (p<0.005) for the average RNFL(r=-0.674) and RNFL in all quadrants (superior r=-0.615, inferior r=-0.472, nasal r=-0.484, and temporal r=-0.323). The risk of having a thin RNFL (odds ratio) was 13 fold higher in patients with COPD.
Conclusions: These results suggest that COPD causes thinning of the RNFL, and severe retinal nerve fiber injury occurs more frequently in advanced COPD.
Copyright (c) 2016 Asian Journal of Ophthalmology
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work twelve (12) months after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
