Abstract
Purpose :
Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) is a non-invasive tool that may be useful to assess disease severity in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The purpose of our study was to assess SD-OCT findings in Tunisian patients with MS.
Methods :
Prospective cross-sectional comparative study including 56 patients with MS and 20 healthy age-matched control subjects. Detailed ophthalmic examination and SD-OCT were performed in all patients.
Results :
Mean age of our patients was 36.16 +/- 1.5 years (Range, 18-63). Forty-one patients (73.2%) were female. Twenty-nine patients (51.8%) had history of optic neuritis. Optic neuritis was unilateral in 12 patients and bilateral in 17 patients. Mean foveal thickness was 253.33 µm +/- 19.8 in patients with MS and 267.76 µm +/- 10.48 in control group (p <0.01). Mean macular volume was 7.18 mm3 +/- 0.57 in patients with MS and 7.57 mm3 +/- 0.3 in control group (p <0.01).
Mean retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) was 100.38 µm +/- 13.9 in patients with MS and 109.65 µm +/- 6.2 in control group (p <0.01). Mean RNFL was 95.76 µm +/- 13.7 in patients with MS and optic neuritis and 102.66 µm +/- 13.09 in patients with MS without optic neuritis (p=0.01). In patients with MS and unilateral optic neuritis, mean RNFL was 102.08+/-9.93 in the affected eye and 102.75 +/- 14.7 in the fellow eye (p=0.45). Mean RNFL was significantly lower in eyes without optic neuritis than in control group (102.66 µm +/- 13.09 vs 109.65 µm +/- 6.2; p <0.01).
Conclusions :
SD-OCT is a quick, non-invasive tool to detect subclinical changes in RNFL and macular thickness in patients with MS. Further multicenter studies are needed to assess the usefulness of SD-OCT in monitoring disease progression.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.