Relationship of Retinal Capillary Plexus and Ganglion Cell Complex with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

Overview

Journal Eye (Lond)

Specialty Ophthalmology

Date 2023 Jun 3

PMID 37270614

Authors

Chunmei Li

Xiaoxuan Zhu

Kai Yang

Ying Ju

Keai Shi

Yunfan Xiao

Binbin Su

Fan Lu

Lele Cui

Ming Li

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate relationship of the retinal capillary plexus (RCP) and ganglion cell complex (GCC) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in a community-based study1.

Methods: This cross-sectional study incorporated the participants of the Jidong Eye Cohort Study. Optical coherence tomography angiography was performed to obtain RCP vessel density and GCC thickness with detailed segments. The Mini-mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment were used to assess cognitive status by professional neuropsychologists. Participants were thus divided into three groups: normal, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia. Multivariable analysis was used to measure relationship of ocular parameters with cognitive impairment.

Results: Of the 2678 participants, the mean age was 44.1 ± 11.7 years. MCI and dementia occurred in 197 (7.4%) and 80 (3%) participants, respectively. Compared to the normal group, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) with the 95% confidence interval was 0.76 (0.65-0.90) for the correlation of lower deep RCP with MCI. We found the following items significantly associated with dementia compared with the normal group: a superficial (OR, 0.68 [0.54-0.86]) and deep (OR, 0.75 [0.57-0.99]) RCP, as well as the GCC (OR, 0.68 [0.54-0.85]). Compared to the MCI group, those with dementia had decreased GCC (OR, 0.75 [0.58-0.97]).

Conclusions: Decreased deep RCP density was associated with MCI. Decreased superficial and deep RCP and the thin GCC were correlated with dementia. These implied that the retinal microvasculature may develop into a promising non-invasive imaging marker to predict severity of cognitive impairment.

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