Quantitative study of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and peripapillary vessel density in patients with different stages of Parkinson’s disease

To observe the changes in the thickness of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) and peripapillary vessel density (pVD) in patients with different stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Totally 47 patients (47 eyes) with primary PD were divided into the mild group and the moderate-to-severe group according to Hoehn & Yahr (H&Y) stage. Among them, there were 27 cases (27 eyes) in mild group and 20 cases (20 eyes) in moderate-to-severe group. And 20 cases (20 eyes) who were included in the control group were healthy people who came to our hospital for health screening at the same time. All participants underwent optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) examinations. The pRNFL thickness, total vessel density (tVD) and capillary vessel density (cVD) of the optic disc in average, superior half, inferior half, superior nasal (SN), nasal superior (NS), nasal inferior (NI), inferior nasal (IN), inferior temporal (IT), temporal inferior (TI), temporal superior (TS), and superior temporal (ST) were measured. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the differences of optic disc parameters among the three groups, and Pearson and Spearman correlations were used to analyze the correlation between pRNFL, pVD and the disease duration, H&Y stage and UPDRS-Ⅲ score in patients with PD, respectively.

There were significant differences in pRNFL thickness in average, superior half, inferior half, SN, NS, IN, IT and ST quadrants among the three groups (P<0.05). In PD group, the pRNFL thickness in average, superior half, inferior half, NS and IT quadrants were negatively correlated with H&Y stage and UPDRS-Ⅲ score, respectively (P<0.05). There were statistically significant differences in the cVD of whole image, inferior half, NI and TS quadrants, the tVD of the whole image, inferior half, and peripapillary among the three groups (P<0.05). In PD group, the tVD of whole image and the cVD of NI and TS quadrants were negatively correlated with the H&Y stage, respectively (P<0.05); the cVD of TS quadrant was negatively correlated with UPDRS-Ⅲ score (P<0.05).

The thickness of pRNFL in PD patients is significantly decreased, and it is negatively correlated with H&Y stage and UPDRS-Ⅲ score. With the increase of the severity of the disease, the pVD parameters in PD patients increase at first in the mild group, and then decrease in the moderate-to-severe group, and negatively correlate with H&Y stage and UPDRS-Ⅲ score.