The effect of autoimmune retinopathy on retinal vessel oxygen saturation in patients with and without clinical features of retinitis pigmentosa

Abstract

PurposeTo study the retinal vessel oxygen saturation alterations in patients with autoimmune retinopathy (AIR) and patients with autoimmune retinopathy associated with retinitis pigmentosa (AIR‐RP) in comparison to healthy controls and patients with isolated retinitis pigmentosa (RP).MethodsRetinal vessel oximetry (RO) was performed on a total of 139 eyes: 6 eyes suffering from AIR and 4 eyes with AIR‐RP were compared to 59 heathy control eyes and to 70 eyes with RP. The oxygen saturation in the first and second branch retinal arterioles (A‐SO2) and venules (V‐SO2) were measured and their difference (A‐V SO2) was calculated. In addition, we measured the diameter of the retinal arterioles (D‐A) and venules (D‐V).ResultsBoth, AIR and AIR‐RP groups, differed from healthy controls showing significantly higher V‐SO2 values and significantly lower A‐V SO2 values (p<0.025). In addition, the AIR‐RP group could be differentiated from eyes suffering from isolated RP by means of significantly higher V‐SO2 values. Comparing retinal vessel diameters, both, the AIR and AIR‐RP groups, presented with significant arterial (p=0.05) and venular (p<0.03) vessel attenuation than the healthy control group.ConclusionsBased on our preliminary results, in analogy to patients suffering from RP, oxygen metabolism seems to be altered in AIR patients.