Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease characterized with recurrent seizures. Progressive neuronal degeneration is a common consequence of long-term and/or recurrent seizure activity in epilepsy. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new medical imaging technique that displays biological tissue layers as high-resolution tomographic sections. The aim of our study was to evaluate OCT findings in patients with epilepsy and to compare OCT findings in terms of disease duration, presence of status, seizure frequency, and drug use.
Methods: Forty-three patients who had epilepsy according to the Commission on Classification and Terminology of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) in 2010 and 40 healthy controls were recruited for the study. Disease duration, seizure frequency, status history, and multiple drug use were noted. Retinal nerve fiber layer (RNLF), ganglion cell layer (GCL), inner-plexiform layer (IPL), and choroid thinning were analyzed by using spectral OCT.
Results: The mean RNFL values are 101.48 ± 11.33 in the patient group and 108.76 ± 8.37 in the control group (p = 0.001). The mean GCL thickness values in the patient and control groups are 1.14 ± 0.12 and 1.22 ± 0.05, (p < 0.001). The mean IPL thickness is 0.93 ± 0.09 in the patient group and 0.97 ± 0.05 in the control group (p = 0.02). Choroid thickness is significantly increased in the patient group (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Demonstration of RNFL, IPL, and GCL thinning might indicate neurodegeneration, and choroid thickening indicates neuroinflammation. We found no association between disease duration, seizure frequency, status history, and multiple drug use and OCT parameters. Further studies with larger patient groups should clarify the matter.
Keywords: Choroidal thickness; Epilepsy; Ganglion cell layer; Optic coherence tomography; Retinal nerve fiber layer.
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