The correlation between optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) findings with disability factors in multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple Sclerosis or MS is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, in which neurodegeneration occurs alongside inflammation from the very beginning, and the presence of demyelinating plaques in the optic nerve has been proven in more than 99% of MS patients. It is believed that the decrease in nerve density in the eye leads to a decrease in the need for blood supply and, as a result, a decrease in the peripapillary and macular vessels. Currently, OCTA is used to detect and study retinal vessel damage in MS patients. Disease monitoring methods after drug administration are mainly limited to periodical clinical examinations and imaging (MRI) of the brain and spinal cord. The aim of this study is firstly to evaluate the vessel density in MS patients and secondly to evaluate the status of OCTA in MS patients as a non-invasive, cheap and accurate method for monitoring this disease. Methods and Materials: The current study is a case/control study that includes 40 patients with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) with or without a history of optic neuritis, who are in the age range of 20 to 60 years. and also 40 people in the control group who do not have a history of ophthalmic, neurological and neurological diseases or any systemic diseases affecting the eyes or neurological system and were matched with the patient group in terms of age and gender, were included in the study after obtaining informed consent. became The total sample included 80 eyes in each of the patient and control groups. Results: In patients with MS, the density of peripapillary vessels in all 4 quadrants of both right and left eyes (P value < 0.05) as well as the vascular density of the macula in both left and right eyes in patients with MS is significantly lower than in the healthy group. was (P value < 0.001), but there was a significant relationship between peripapillary vascular density and EDSS scores (P value = 0.408 for right eye and P value = 0.421 for left eye), T25FWT (P value = 0.191 for right eye and P value = 0.593 left eye), HPT9 (P value = 0.628 right eye and P value = 0.319 left eye) and SDMT (P value = 0.331 right eye and P value = 0.576 left eye) ) There was not. Similarly, macular vascular density with EDSS scores (P value = 0.761 for right eye and P value = 0.699 for left eye), T25FWT (P value = 0.582 for right eye and P value = 0.912 for left eye), HPT9 (P value = 0.707 for the right eye and P value = 0.746 for the left eye) and SDMT (P value = 0.826 for the right eye and P value = 0.241 for the left eye) were not found in the examinations of patients with MS.