TY  - JOUR
AU  - Aly, Lilian
AU  - Strauß, Eva-Maria
AU  - Feucht, Nikolaus
AU  - Weiß, Isabella
AU  - Berthele, Achim
AU  - Mitsdoerffer, Meike
AU  - Haass, Christian
AU  - Hemmer, Bernhard
AU  - Maier, Mathias
AU  - Korn, Thomas
AU  - Knier, Benjamin
TI  - Optical coherence tomography angiography indicates subclinical retinal disease in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.
JO  - Multiple sclerosis journal
VL  - 28
IS  - 4
SN  - 1477-0970
CY  - London
PB  - Sage
M1  - DZNE-2021-00654
SP  - 522-531
PY  - 2022
AB  - Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) are neuroinflammatory diseases of the central nervous system. Patients suffer from recurring relapses and it is unclear whether relapse-independent disease activity occurs and whether this is of clinical relevance.To detect disease-specific alterations of the retinal vasculature that reflect disease activity during NMOSD.Cross-sectional analysis of 16 patients with NMOSD, 21 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and 21 healthy controls using retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT), optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A), measurement of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) serum levels, and assessment of visual acuity.Patients with NMOSD but not multiple sclerosis revealed lower foveal thickness (FT) (p = 0.02) measures and an increase of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) (p = 0.02) compared to healthy controls independent to optic neuritis. Reduced FT (p = 0.01), enlarged FAZ areas (p = 0.0001), and vessel loss of the superficial vascular complex (p = 0.01) were linked to higher serum GFAP levels and superficial vessel loss was associated with worse visual performance in patients with NMOSD irrespective of optic neuritis.Subclinical parafoveal retinal vessel loss might occur during NMOSD and might be linked to astrocyte damage and poor visual performance. OCT-A may be a tool to study subclinical disease activity during NMOSD.
KW  - Angiography
KW  - Cross-Sectional Studies
KW  - Humans
KW  - Neuromyelitis Optica: diagnosis
KW  - Retinal Diseases
KW  - Tomography, Optical Coherence: methods
KW  - Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (Other)
KW  - astrocytes (Other)
KW  - biomarker (Other)
KW  - disease activity (Other)
KW  - optical coherence tomography angiography (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C2  - pmc:PMC8961243
C6  - pmid:34259579
DO  - DOI:10.1177/13524585211028831
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/155448
ER  -