Optical coherence tomography does not support optic nerve involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Authors
- N.M. Roth
- S. Saidha
- H. Zimmermann
- A.U. Brandt
- T. Oberwahrenbrock
- N.J. Maragakis
- H. Tumani
- A.C. Ludolph
- T. Meyer
- P.A. Calabresi
- F. Paul
Journal
- European Journal of Neurology
Citation
- Eur J Neurol 20 (8): 1170-1176
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: In recent years a possible non-motor involvement of the nervous system in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has come into the focus of research and has been investigated by numerous techniques. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) - with its potential to reveal neuroaxonal retinal damage - may be an appropriate tool to investigate whether the anterior visual pathway is involved. Our aim was to determine whether OCT-based measures of retinal nerve fiber layer, ganglion cell layer, inner nuclear layer and outer nuclear layer thickness are abnormal in ALS, or correlated with disease severity. METHODS: Seventy-six ALS patients (144 eyes) and 54 healthy controls (108 eyes; HCs) were examined with OCT, including automated intraretinal macular segmentation. ALS disease severity was determined with the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale - Revised. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between ALS patients and HCs in any of the examined OCT measures. Moreover, OCT parameters showed no correlation with clinical measures of disease severity. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that involvement of the anterior visual pathway is not one of the non-motor manifestations of ALS.