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Jeong, Kim, and Park: Change of Outer Retinal Thickness in Fellow Eyes of Patients with Unilateral Age-related Macular Degeneration
Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 2017; 58(9): 1036-1041.

Published online: 12 September 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2017.58.9.1036

Change of Outer Retinal Thickness in Fellow Eyes of Patients with Unilateral Age-related Macular Degeneration

Hyun Kyo Jeong, MD1, Sung Soo Kim, MD, PhD2, Hyun Ju Park, MD1

1Siloam Eye Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

2Department of Ophthalmology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Address reprint requests to: Hyun Ju Park, MD. Siloam Eye Hospital, #181 Deungchon-ro, Gangseo-gu, Seoul 07668, Korea. Tel: 82-2-2650-0880, Fax: 82-2-2650-0725, hjpeye@siloam.co.kr

Received 22 June 2017       Revised 9 August 2017       Accepted 1 September 2017

©2017 The Korean Ophthalmological Society

The Korean Ophthalmological Society

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

To compare the outer retinal thickness in normal fellow eyes of patients with unilateral age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and normal control eyes.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 60 patients with unilateral exudative AMD including polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy and 60 normal controls. Spectralis optical coherence tomography was performed in the normal fellow eyes of patients with unilateral AMD and in the normal group. The thicknesses between the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) line and the cone outer segment tips (COST) line, between the COST line and the photoreceptor inner segment/outer segment (IS/OS) line, and between the IS/OS line and the external limiting membrane (ELM) line were measured at the fovea in both groups.

Results

The thickness between the RPE and COST lines was 32.4 ± 3.0 µm in normal fellow eyes of patients with unilateral AMD and 35.3 ± 3.5 µm in the normal group (p < 0.001). Total retinal thickness, thicknesses between the COST and the IS/OS lines and the IS/OS and the ELM lines in fellow eyes were not significantly different from those of normal eyes (p = 0.126, 0.615, 0.874). There was no significant difference in total retinal thickness or each outer retinal thickness measured in normal fellow eyes between patients with neovascular AMD and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy.

Conclusions

The thickness between the RPE and the COST lines was thinner in the fellow eyes of patients with unilateral AMD than in the normal eyes. We suggest that less thickness between the RPE and COST lines might indicate a greater risk of AMD.

Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration, Cone outer segment tips, Outer retinal thickness, Retinal pigment epithelium

Figures and Tables

Figure 1

Thickness measurements of each layer in the outer retina in normal eye (A) and in fellow eye of patients with unilateral age-related macular degeneration (B). Thickness between the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) line (outer border) and the cone outer segment tips (COST) line (inner border), the COST line (inner border) and the photoreceptor inner segment/outer segment (IS/OS) line (center of the line), the IS/OS line (center of the line) and the external limiting membrane (ELM) line (center of the line) and the total retinal thickness were measured in both groups.

jkos-58-1036-g001
Figure 2

Thickness of each layer at the fovea in fellow eyes of patients with unilateral age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and normal eyes. Error bar is mean ± standard deviation. RPE = retinal pigment epithelium, COST = cone outer segment tips, IS/OS = photoreceptor inner segment/outer segment, ELM = external limiting membrane. *p-value < 0.05.

jkos-58-1036-g002
Figure 3

Thickness of each layer at the fovea in fellow eyes of patients with unilateral neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Error bar is mean ± standard deviation. PCV = polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy; RPE = retinal pigment epithelium; COST = cone outer segment tips; IS/OS = photoreceptor inner segment/outer segment; ELM = external limiting membrane.

jkos-58-1036-g003

Notes

Conflicts of Interest The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

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