Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2022 May 2;63(5):35. doi: 10.1167/iovs.63.5.35.
The aim of this study was to assess both retinal and cortical structure in a cohort of patients with long-term acquired central retinal disease in order to identify potential disease biomarkers and to explore the relationship between the anterior and posterior visual pathways.
Fourteen participants diagnosed with long-term central retinal disease underwent structural assessments of the retina using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, including macular ganglion cell layer (GCL) and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness. Structural magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure visual cortex, including cortical volume of the entire occipital lobe and cortical thickness of the occipital pole and calcarine sulcus, representing the central and peripheral retina, respectively.
Mean thickness was significantly reduced in both the macular GCL and the inferior temporal pRNFL across patients. Cortical thickness was significantly reduced in both the occipital pole and calcarine sulcus, representing the central and peripheral retina, respectively. Disease duration significantly correlated with GCL thickness with a large effect size, whereas a medium effect size suggests the possibility that cortical thickness in the occipital pole may correlate with visual acuity.
Long-term central retinal disease is associated with significant structural changes to both the retina and the brain. Exploratory analysis suggests that monitoring GCL thickness may be a sensitive biomarker of disease progression and reductions in visual cortical thickness may be associated with reduced visual acuity. Although this study is limited by its heterogeneous population, larger cohort studies would be needed to better establish some of the relationships detected between disease dependent structural properties of the anterior and posterior visual pathway given the effect sizes reported in our exploratory analysis.
本研究旨在评估一组长期获得性中心性视网膜疾病患者的视网膜和皮质结构，以确定潜在的疾病生物标志物，并探讨前向和后向视觉通路之间的关系。
14 名被诊断为长期中心性视网膜疾病的参与者接受了视网膜的光谱域光学相干断层扫描结构评估，包括黄斑神经节细胞层（GCL）和视盘周围视网膜神经纤维层（pRNFL）厚度。结构磁共振成像用于测量视觉皮质，包括整个枕叶的皮质体积和枕极及舌回的皮质厚度，分别代表中央和周边视网膜。
患者的黄斑 GCL 和下颞部 pRNFL 的平均厚度均显著降低。枕极和舌回的皮质厚度均显著降低，分别代表中央和周边视网膜。疾病持续时间与 GCL 厚度显著相关，具有较大的效应量，而中效应量表明枕极皮质厚度可能与视力相关。
长期中心性视网膜疾病与视网膜和大脑的显著结构变化有关。探索性分析表明，监测 GCL 厚度可能是疾病进展的敏感生物标志物，而视皮质厚度的降低可能与视力下降有关。尽管本研究受到其异质性人群的限制，但需要更大的队列研究来更好地建立前向和后向视觉通路的疾病依赖结构特性之间的一些关系，因为我们的探索性分析报告了一些关系。
