Longitudinal neuroretinal analysis in patients with fibromyalgia

Abstract

AbstractPurpose: To analyse macular ganglion cell layer (GCL) and visual parameters in patients with Fibromyalgia (FM) over 5 years, compared with controls.Methods: Eighty patients with FM and 38 sex‐matched healthy subjects underwent a complete ophthalmic evaluation, including assessment of visual acuity (VA) with ETDRS chart, contrast sensitivity vision (CSV) with Pelli Robson, colour vision with Farnsworth and Lanthony D15 tests and retinal evaluation using Spectral domain Optical coherence tomography (SD‐OCT). Only one eye per subject was randomly selected and included. Patients were classified into three different groups (1, atypical; 2, depressive; 3, biologic) to analyse progression depending on the disease phenotype. All subjects were re‐evaluated after 5 years to quantify changes in visual function parameters, ganglion cell layer (GCL) and retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness. Association between progressive ophthalmologic changes and disease severity was analysed.Results: After a period of 5 years of follow up, patients with FM showed progressive changes in visual function parameters and GCL thickness. They presented low contrast VA (p = 0.024) and decreased GCL thickness and the RFNL. Changes in GCL thickness were associated with disease severity. In atypical and biological phenotypes, correlations between disease severity scores and structural changes were observed.Conclusions: In patients with FM has been detected progressive visual dysfunction and neuroretinal degeneration. The evaluation of visual parameters and GCL/RNFL thickness using SD‐OCT could be a non‐invasive and useful tool for monitoring FM progression.