Abstract
Purpose :
To assess choroidal thickness in smokers and non-smokers using enhanced depth imaging spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT).
Methods :
This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Minnesota State Fair from September 2nd - 4th, 2016. After basic ocular examination, EDI-OCT was used to measure subfoveal choroidal thickness, the distance from the hyper-reflective retinal pigment epithelium to the outer choroid under the fovea.
Results :
107 subjects (46 males, 61 females) with a mean age of 42 participated in this study. Smokers were defined as individuals with greater than one pack year of tobacco use. There were 54 smokers, which included both current and former smokers, and 53 non-smokers. After accounting for possible conounding variables (hypertension, diabetes, and myopia), no significant difference was found in choroidal thickness between smokers and non-smokers (300.8 and 283.9 μm, respectively; Student’s t-test, p=0.39). Additionally, among smokers, there was no statistically significant correlation between pack year history and choroidal thickness (Pearson correlation coefficient 0.024, p = 0.869). An inverse relationship between age and choroidal thickness was found (Pearson correlation coefficient = -0.393, p<0.001).
Conclusions :
Prior studies have shown that nicotine can acutely reduce the choroidal thickness due to its vasoconstrictive effect. However, the long term effects of tobacco exposure on choroidal thickness are still not understood. This study did not identify statistically significant differences in choroidal thickness between smokers and non-smokers.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.