Thinning Retina as an Early Feature of Parkinson Disease

Both patients with PD and those who later developed it had thinner retinal layers than people who never developed PD.

Although retinal changes have been associated with Parkinson disease (PD), in vivo retinal imaging rarely has been applied. In this study, investigators used optical coherence tomography (OCT) in the AlzEye cohort to compare the integrity of the inner retinal layers in 700 patients with prevalent PD versus 105,770 controls. They analyzed the thickness of the macular retinal nerve fiber layer (mRNFL), the ganglion cell–inner plexiform layer (GCIPL), and inner nuclear layer (INL). In a second, large, publicly available dataset, the UK Biobank, the researchers examined whether retinal changes were associated with incident cases of PD.

Patients with prevalent PD manifested thinner GCIPL and INL retinal layers. Additionally, in the UK Biobank cas…

Reviewing Author

Michael S. Okun, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardParkinson’s Foundation; Tourette Association of America

Speaker’s BureauMedscape/WebMD CME, Movement Disorders Society CME, American Academy of Neurology CME

RoyaltiesBooks4Patients; Demos; Cambridge; Taylor and Francis; Robert Rose; Public Affairs

Grant/Research SupportNational Institutes of Health; Parkinson’s Foundation; Tourette Association of America; University of Florida Foundation

Editorial BoardsTremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements; JAMA Neurology

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesParkinson’s Foundation (Medical Advisor)