doiSerbia

Abnormalities in the thickness of the retinal ganglion cell/inner plexiform layer in age-related macular degeneration

Živković Maja (University of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Niš, Serbia + Niš Clinical Center, Ophthalmology Clinic, Niš, Serbia)
Jakšić Vesna (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Belgrade, Serbia)
Zlatanović Marko (Niš Clinical Center, Ophthalmology Clinic, Niš, Serbia)
Sefić-Kasumović Sanja (Dr Sefić Eye Cinic, Sarajevo, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Radosavljević Aleksandra (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Belgrade, Serbia)
Zlatanović Nevena (Community Health Center Niš, Niš, Serbia)
Zlatanović Gordana (Clinic Maja Eye hospital, Niš, Serbia)
Đorđević-Jocić Jasmina (University of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Niš, Serbia + Niš Clinical Center, Ophthalmology Clinic, Niš, Serbia)
Jovanović Predrag (University of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Niš, Serbia + Niš Clinical Center, Ophthalmology Clinic, Niš, Serbia)
Radenković Marija (Niš Clinical Center, Ophthalmology Clinic, Niš, Serbia)
Jovanović Svetlana (University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Clinical Department of Ophthalmology, Kragujevac, Serbia), drsvetlanajovanovic@yahoo.com

Introduction/Objective. The study aims to analyze the thickness of both the ganglion cell layer and the inner plexiform layer (GCL + IPL) among patients suffering from dry and wet form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods. One hundred ninety-five patients with AMD participated in the study, along with 94 healthy individuals (mean age 75.2 ± 7.8 years; range 55–86). They were divided into three groups: the first group, or group I, included 100 patients suffering from wet AMD; the second group, or group II, included 95 patients afflicted with dry AMD; the final 94 patients made up the control group, group III, of healthy individuals without systemic or ocular diseases. Measurements such as the average macular thickness, the average and minimum GCL + IPL thickness, and the GCL + IPL thickness in all six sectors were obtained by Cirrus spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA, USA). SPSS version 20.0 was used to analyze the data, while the level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results. In the case of patients with wet AMD, the average value for GCL + IPL thickness was 43.13 μm, for patients with dry AMD the value was 66.73 μm, and the average thickness measured for the control group was 86.23 μm. There was a statistically significant difference between the average GCL + IPL and minimum GCL + IPL thicknesses between the groups (p < 0.001). Lower values were noted for patients with wet AMD (p < 0.001) than those with dry AMD. In the latter, the average GCL + IPL and the minimum GCL + IPL thicknesses were lower than those of the healthy participants, at a level of statistical significance (p < 0.001). Conclusion. Participants with AMD exhibited thinner GCL + IPL than the healthy participants, as did the participants with wet AMD when compared to the participants with dry AMD.

Keywords: dry AMD, wet AMD, ganglion cell layer, ganglion cell complex