Abstract
Purpose :
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients commonly experience sleep-related problems and susceptibility towards stress which may be detected by specific biomarkers in tears. We investigated the association between the grade of severity of RP (by clinical assessment), and biochemical stress (by analyzing proposed biomarkers in tears) and determine the impact of psychological factors and sleep disturbances among RP patients
Methods :
Seventy-eight RP patients were recruited. The study encompassed administration of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaires, a complete ophthalmological examination for severity grading of RP and collection of tear samples. The activity of biomarkers (Figure.1) was estimated by 20 Plex-Luminex and statistical analysis was performed to determine associations between perceived stress, sleep quality, sleepiness, and biomarkers activity. To complete the assessment, sampling in healthy controls is being analyzed to compare
Results :
At the time of evaluation, 52 (67%) of patients had a severe RP (33 (63.5%- males) and 19 (36.5%) females) with a mean age 53.83 ± 13.17 yrs, and 26 (33%) a mild-moderate grade (14 (53.8%) males) and 12 (46.2%) females) with a mean age 47.12 ± 12.94 yrs (Table.1). The severity of RP tends to be highest in older patients (p=0.036). Fifty-eight (58,9%) patients reported severe-anxiety and 18 (23.,1%) high-anxiety
status measured by STAI. Forty-six (59%) of patients obtained pathological values in PSQI and 43 (55.1%) in EES. Patients with severe and mild-moderate RP (n=38 and 20, respectively) did not show significant differences when sleep quality, and perceived anxiety scores were compared. We found high tear concentrations of EGF, GRO, IL-1Ra, IL-8, and MCP-1. Differences were not significant by age, grade of severity, stress status, and gender between groups, but patients with more severe disease, poor sleep quality, and higher scores of anxiety status showed higher concentrations
Conclusions :
Pro-inflammatory cytokines seem to be elevated in tear fluid from RP patients. Present findings reveal that tear fluid biomarkers could be appropriated for the objective assessment of sleep deprivation and stress in RP patients in a non-invasive way
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.