The Relationship of Macular Pigment Optical Density to Serum Lutein in Retinitis Pigmentosa

Abstract

To determine whether macular pigment optical density (MPOD) is related to serum lutein or serum zeaxanthin in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. The authors measured MPOD with heterochromatic flicker photometry, serum lutein and serum zeaxanthin by high performance liquid chromatography, and central foveal retinal thickness by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in 176 patients (age range, 18-68 years) with typical forms of retinitis pigmentosa; 37 (21%) of these patients had cystoid macular edema (CME) by OCT. The authors performed multiple regression analysis with MPOD as the dependent variable and with log(e) serum lutein and log(e) serum zeaxanthin as independent variables adjusting for age, sex, iris color, central foveal retinal thickness, and, in some analyses, serum total cholesterol. MPOD increased with increasing serum lutein (P = 0.0017) and decreased with increasing serum total cholesterol (P = 0.0025) but was unrelated to serum zeaxanthin. MPOD was higher in patients with brown irides than in patients with lighter irides (P = 0.014) and was nonmonotonically related to central foveal retinal thickness (P < 0.0001), being lower in eyes with more photoreceptor cell loss and in eyes with moderate to marked CME. MPOD is independently related to serum lutein, serum total cholesterol, iris color, and central foveal retinal thickness in patients with retinitis pigmentosa.