Abstract
Purpose :
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with retinopathy, which commonly lead to vision deterioration. We performed a retrospective, observational clinical study to assess the changes in ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness and retinal vessel density between CKD patients and control subjects using optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Methods :
56 CKD patients (111 eyes) without abnormal blood glucose level and 63 age-matched healthy controls (126 eyes) were enrolled in our study. We measured the macular GCC thickness with OCT and vessel density with OCT angiography (OCTA). In addition, retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) around the optic disc was also detected by OCT. Blood pressure was measured in all subjects. Student’s t-test and Pearson correlation analysis were used for statistical analysis using SPSS and p < 0.05 was considered significant. This study followed the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the institutional review board of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University.
Results :
CKD patients showed thinner macular GCC thickness compared to controls (superior: 95.0±6.6 vs 99.4±6.1, p<0.001; inferior: 97.3±7.4 vs 102.1±6.6, p<0.001). While the deep capillary density in macular was lower in CKD patients compared to controls (3.066±0.233 vs 3.126±0.199, p=0.035), the superficial capillary density showed no statistical difference (1.838±0.310 vs 1.779±0.332, p=0.164). The whole RNFL thickness (102.3±11.2 vs 108.2±9.9, p<0.001) around the optic disc were thinner in CKD patients compared to controls. CKD patients showed higher blood pressure compared to controls (p<0.001). The superficial capillary density in macular had high correlation coefficient with the superior (r=0.263, p<0.001) and inferior (r=0.223, p=0.001) macular GCC thickness. The blood pressure also had a high correlation coefficient with superior (r=-0.205, p=0.02) and inferior (r=-0.294, p<0.001) macular GCC thickness, whole RNFL thickness (r=-0.234, p<0.001) and deep capillary density in macular (r=-0.183, p=0.005).
Conclusions :
OCT and OCTA measurements show the significant changes in macular GCC thickness and deep capillary density in CKD patients, which suggests that CKD commonly causes the retinal neuropathy and angiopathy. OCT can become a novel promising clinical diagnosis for the retinopathy in CKD patients.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.