AUTHOR=Poveda Santiago , Arellano Ximena , Bernal-Pacheco Oscar , Valencia López Alejandro 

TITLE=Structural changes in the retina as a potential biomarker in Parkinson's disease: an approach from optical coherence tomography

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroimaging

VOLUME=Volume 3 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroimaging/articles/10.3389/fnimg.2024.1340754

DOI=10.3389/fnimg.2024.1340754

ISSN=2813-1193

ABSTRACT=Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) presents challenges in early diagnosis and followup due to the lack of characteristic findings. Recent studies suggest retinal changes in PD, is a possibly indicative of neurodegeneration. We explored these changes using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to assess retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness.Methods: 30 PD and non-PD patients were matched according to demographic characteristics and OCT and clinical evaluations to rule out other neurodegenerative and visual diseases Results: We observed a significant thinning of the RNFL in patients diagnosed with PD compared to non-PD patients (p = 0.015). Additionally, this reduction in RNFL thickness was found to correlate with the severity of the disease (p = 0.04).The OCT serves as a tool for quantifying neurodegeneration in PD, showing a significant correlation with disease severity. These findings suggest that OCT could play a crucial role as a potential biomarker in the diagnosis and monitoring of PD.