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Evaluation of the effect of unilateral late blindness on the retina, optic nerve and choroid parameters in the sighted eye

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Abstract

Background

To investigate whether unilateral late blindness alters the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell complex (GCC), central macular thickness (CMT) and choroidal thickness (CT).

Methods

The 17 healthy eyes of 17 monocular patients with late blindness due to isolated eye trauma in one eye and the 19 eyes of 19 healthy individuals were evaluated in this retrospective study. Patients with at least 10 years of monocular blindness, a refractive error between + 1.5 and -1.5 D in the sighted eye, a best-corrected visual acuity of at least 20/20 and an axial length (AL) < 25 mm were included in the study. Following ophthalmologic examination, the RNFL, GCC, CMT and CT values were measured with spectral domain optic tomography (SD-OCT). Those with ocular, systemic or neurological disease that could influence the measured parameters were excluded from the study.

Results

A total of 17 (14 males, 3 females) monocular patients [mean age 41.00 ± 11.95 (24–64)] and 19 (16 males, 3 females) healthy individuals [mean age 39.79 ± 6.74 (30–56)], similar in age and gender (p = 0.949 and p = 0.881), were included in the study. The mean duration of being monocular was 22.76 ± 11.76 (10–49) years. No difference was present between the RNFL, GCC, CMT and CT measurements of the monocular patients and the healthy individuals (p = 0.692, p = 0.294, p = 0.113, p = 0.623, respectively). No significant correlation was found between the duration of monocularity and the retinal and optic nerve parameters.

Conclusion

The results of our study indicate no difference in the optic nerve, retina and choroid OCT findings in the sighted eyes of subjects with long-term monocular blindness compared to subjects with bilateral normal eyes. Although functional and volumetric neuroimaging studies suggest the possibility of compensation in these patients, our findings indicate that this is not at the ocular level.

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Funding

No financial support was received for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Alaaddin Keykubat University Alanya Education and Research Hospital, 07400, Antalya, Turkey

    Caglar Oktem & Fatih Aslan

  2. Department of Neurology, Alaaddin Keykubat University Alanya Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey

    Ece Ozdemir Oktem

Authors
  1. Caglar Oktem
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  2. Fatih Aslan
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  3. Ece Ozdemir Oktem
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [Caglar Oktem] and [Fatih Aslan]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [Caglar Oktem and Ece Ozdemir Oktem] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Caglar Oktem.

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The authors gave the approval of the publication.

Ethical approval

The study procedures were carried out in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University Clinical Research Ethics Committee (No. 22–30 dated 2020/8).

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Oktem, C., Aslan, F. & Oktem, E.O. Evaluation of the effect of unilateral late blindness on the retina, optic nerve and choroid parameters in the sighted eye. Int Ophthalmol 41, 4083–4089 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-01981-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-01981-0

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