Retinal alterations in evaluation of rheumatoid arthritis with chloroquine treatment: A new approach

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of hydroxychloroquine on conjunctival and retinal microvascular density in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

Methods: Ten healthy controls, 10 RA patients who had not been treated with hydroxychloroquine, and 10 RA patients who had been treated with chloroquine for more than 5 years were recruited. Optical coherence tomography (OCTA) was used to examine the conjunctival and superficial and deep retinal microvascular density and compared the differences in microvascular density between the three groups.

Results: The vascular density in RA group in superficial microvascular was significantly lower than that in control group (p < 0.001). Compared with RA group, the chloroquine group showed statistically significantly lower microvascular (p < 0.001) and deep microvascular (p = 0.018). Superficial microvascular was positively correlated with conjunctival vessel density in RA patients (r = 0.868, p = 0.0048).

Conclusions: The use of chloroquine could further reduce the vascular density in the absence of statistical difference in the course of the disease.

Keywords: chloroquine; microvascular density; optical coherence tomography angiography; retina; rheumatoid arthritis.