Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thinning in Alzheimer's Disease: A Case-Control Study in Comparison to Normal Aging, Parkinson's Disease, and Non-Alzheimer's Dementia.

Retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, ganglion cell layer (GCL) thickness, and macular volume (MV) utilizing spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) were compared among patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia, non-Alzheimer's disease (non-AD) dementia, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), Parkinson's disease (PD), and age- and sex-matched controls in a cross-sectional cohort study. A total of 116 participants were diagnosed and evaluated (21 AD, 20 aMCI, 20 non-AD, 20 PD, and 34 controls) after comprehensive neurological, neuropsychology, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumetric evaluations. Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, GCL thickness, and MV were measured. Analysis of variance models were used to compare groups on MRI volumetric measures, cognitive test results, and SD-OCT measures. Associations between SD-OCT measures and other measures were performed using mixed-effect models. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography analysis of retinal markers, including RNFL thickness, GCL thickness, and MV, did not differ between amnestic MCI, AD dementia, PD, non-AD, dementia, and age- and sex-matched controls in a well-characterized patient cohort.