Abstract
Purpose :
To compare the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and macula in the eyes of healthy older persons with no cognitive disabilities with that in the eyes of older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to determine its effectiveness for early diagnosis of MCI or AD
Methods :
Thirty eyes of 30 subjects in each cohort of normal eyes and those in patients with MCI or AD were studied. All subjects underwent ophthalmologic and cognitive examinations and measurements of RNFL thickness, and macular volume and thickness using OCT.
Results :
Mean RNFL thickness on OCT was significantly thinner in the AD group than in the MCI group (p = 0.01). The RNFL was thinner in the superior quadrant in patients with AD compared to the healthy controls (p = 0.03). The RNFL thickness in the inferior, nasal, and temporal quadrants did not differ significantly among groups. Measurements in 12 zones revealed that zone 11 had a significantly thinner RNFL in the AD group compared with the healthy control group (p = 0.02). In zone 2, the MCI group had a significantly thinner RNFL than the AD group (p = 0.03).
Conclusions :
Our findings revealed a neuroanatomic difference in the RNFL thickness among the three groups of AD, MCI and healthy controls on OCT, suggesting that a change in the average RNFL thickness could be one of several meaningful index for implying early AD .
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.