Retinal function-structure relationships in retinitis pigmentosa: Point-to-point comparison in co-registered microperimetry and optical coherence tomography images

Abstract

Purpose : To investigate the retinal structure-function relationships in the macula of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients by comparing microperimetry-3 (MP-3) with co-registered optical coherence tomography (OCT) images.

Methods : We studiedthirty patients with typical RPrecruited from Kyushu University Hospital. The maculae of RP patients were examined with MP-3 and OCT. We analyzed the correlation coefficients between the retinal sensitivity and the total retinal thickness (TRT), the length from the inner limiting membrane to the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), and between the retinal sensitivity and the outer retinal thickness (ORT), the length from the outer plexiform layer to the RPE at each stimulus point.

Results : TRT was moderately correlated with the retinal sensitivity at 2° (median ρ=0.59 interquartile range (IQR) [0.38–0.72]), 4° (ρ=0.59 [0.55–0.68]) and 6° (ρ=0.60 [0.54–0.63]), and TRT was weakly-to-moderately related to the retinal sensitivity at 8° (ρ=0.27 [0.19–0.48]). ORT showed strong correlations at 2° (ρ=0.72 [0.60–0.81]), 4° (ρ=0.71 [0.75–0.67]) and 6° (ρ=0.70 [0.54–0.74]), and weak-to-moderate correlations at 8° (ρ=0.34 [0.29–0.53]). ORT was more strongly correlated with the retinal sensitivity compared to TRT (p=0.018).

Conclusions : ORT, rather than TRT, within 6° eccentricity showed strong correlation with the retinal sensitivity, suggesting that measuring ORT in those areas will help evaluate the macular status and progression in RP.

This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.