Does choroidal thickness change in parkinson’s disease?

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the choroidal thickness (CT) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) compared to healthy individuals and to investigate the relationship between the disease duration and the CT. Materials and methods: The study group included 24 right eyes of 24 PD patients and the control group included 25 right eyes of 25 healthy individuals. The CT was measured in both groups using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) at 6 points: The foveal centre and at 500-?m intervals temporal (3 points) and nasal (2 points) to the foveal centre. The groups were compared in terms of CT values and group analyses were performed. The correlation between the PD duration and the CT was also evaluated. Results: The mean age of the 24 PD patients (14 males) was 67.5 ± 12.8 years and the mean age of the 25 healthy individuals in the control group (13 males) was 66.1 ± 9.7 years. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age or gender (P = 0.59 and P = 0.768). The PD patients had significantly increased CT values subfoveal (P = 0.04), 500 ?m nasal (P = 0.03), and 500, 1,000 and 1,500 ?m temporal to the foveal centre (P = 0.02, P = 0.02, P = 0.02, resp.). No correlation was detected between the PD duration and the CT (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The choroidal thickness may increase in PD compared with healthy individuals. However, more studies are needed to corroborate our findings and to assess the underlying pathophysiology. © 2019, Czech Medical Association J.E. Purkyne. All rights reserved.