Diagnostic Ability and Capacity of Optical Coherence Tomography-Angiography to Detect Retinal and Vascular Changes in Patients with Fibromyalgia

Elena Garcia-Martin; Alvaro Tello; Elisa Vilades; Javier Perez-Velilla; Beatriz Cordon; Diego Fernandez-Velasco; Javier Garcia-Campayo; Marta Puebla-Guedea; Maria Satue

doi:10.1155/2022/3946017

Diagnostic Ability and Capacity of Optical Coherence Tomography-Angiography to Detect Retinal and Vascular Changes in Patients with Fibromyalgia

J Ophthalmol. 2022 Aug 27:2022:3946017. doi: 10.1155/2022/3946017. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Elena Garcia-Martin^{1

2}, Alvaro Tello^{1

2}, Elisa Vilades^{1

2}, Javier Perez-Velilla², Beatriz Cordon^{1

2}, Diego Fernandez-Velasco³, Javier Garcia-Campayo^{2

4}, Marta Puebla-Guedea^{2

4}, Maria Satue^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Ophthalmology Department, Miguel Servet University Hospital, Zaragoza, Spain.
² Miguel Servet Ophthalmology Research and Innovation Group (GIMSO), Aragon Institute for Health Research (IIS Aragón), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
³ University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
⁴ Psychiatry Department, Primary Care Research Network (REDIAPP), Miguel Servet University Hospital, Zaragoza, Spain.

Abstract

Background: To evaluate the neuroretina and retinal vasculature of fibromyalgia (FM) patients and calculate a linear discriminant function (LDF) to improve retinal parameters' contribution to FM diagnosis.

Methods: Fifty FM patients and 232 healthy controls underwent retinal evaluation using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) angiography (Triton plus; Topcon) and spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) (Spectralis; Heidelberg). The macular (m) and peripapillary (p) retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell layer (GCL) were assessed, as was the macular vascular density. A logistic regression analysis was performed, and an LDF was calculated to evaluate OCT's contribution to FM diagnosis.

Results: With Triton OCT, the patients presented pRNFL thinning in the temporal sector (p=0.006). Spectralis OCT measurements showed decreased pRNFL in patients in the following sectors: superonasal, p=0.001; nasal, p=0.001; inferonasal, p=0.006; temporal, p=0.001; and inferotemporal, p=0.001. No significant differences were observed in the macular vascular plexus between patients and controls. However, vascular density in the superior sector showed a strong inverse correlation with disease duration (r = -0.978, p=0.022). The LDF calculated for Spectralis OCT yielded an area under the ROC curve of 0.968.

Conclusions: FM patients present RNFL thinning observable using SS- and SD-OCT. However, these patients show similar vascular density in the macular area to healthy controls. The LDF that combines several RNFL parameters obtained using Spectralis OCT gives this device a powerful ability to differentiate between healthy individuals and individuals with FM.