Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2015 , Vol 18, Issue 3
THE CORRELATION OF CHOROIDAL THICKNESS AND OCULAR PULSE AMPLITUDE IN NON-EXUDATIVE AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION
Gülizar DEMİROK1, Sertaç ÖZTÜRK1, İlknur MÜSLEHİDDİNOĞLU1, Yasemin TOPALAK1, Eşay YENİCE1, Burcu TABAKÇI2, Yeşim ALTAY3, Ahmet ŞENGÜN1, Erol TURAÇLI1
1Ufuk University, Faculty of Medicine Department of Opthalmology, ANKARA
2Ağrı State Hospital, Opthalmology Clinic, AĞRI
3Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Opthalmolgy Clinic, ANKARA Introduction: The choroid is involved in the pathogenesis of various retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) gives useful information about intraocular blood flow and is an indirect indicator of choroidal perfusion. In this study, we aimed to assess the correlation between the OPA and choroidal thickness (CT) in the eyes of healthy individuals and of individuals with non-exudative early stage AMD.

Materials and Method: Fourty-four eyes of 44 non-exudative AMD patients and 41 agematched eyes of 41 healthy individuals were included in the study. All eyes underwent a detailed ophthalmic evaluation, including axial length (AL) and ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) measurements. The CT was measured using optical coherence tomography. Parameters were compared between the two groups and correlation between OPA and CT was assessed.

Results: The mean subfoveal, foveal,and parafoveal CT were 245.82±24.29μm, 230.66±23.44μm, 219.55±25.39μm in AMD group, respectively. The corresponding values were 278.44± 34.18μm, 263.76±32.45μm, and 253.79±34.81μm in control group, respectively. The mean ages of groups were 69.6±8.97 years, and 65.0±5.89 years, respectively. The mean OPA was 3.43±1.14mmHg and 3.49±1.12mmHg , respectively. The average CT in AMD patients were significantly lower than the control group in all three regions (subfoveal- foveal- parafoveal) (all p<0,001). In controls, there was a moderate positive correlation between the OPA and CT in the three segments (p=0.002, 0.009, and 0.003; respectively). However only the foveal CT showed significant positive correlation with the OPA in AMD group (p=0.047).

Conclusion: Our results showed a considerable correlation between ocular pulse amplitude and choroidal thickness in healthy subject. In non-exudative AMD group, there was a weak correlation between them. It can be hypothesized that; in patients with AMD, degeneration and/or thinning of choroidal pattern is a reason for this result. Keywords : Choroidal Thickness; Ocular Pulse Amplitude; Dynamic Contour Tonometry; EDI Mode Optical Coherence Tomography