Optical coherence tomography in patients with Wilson’s disease: A single center, prospective study

Abstract Background: Morphological changes of retina in patients with Wilson’s disease (WD) can be found by optical coherence tomography (OCT), and such changes have significant differences between neurological forms（NWD ) and hepatic forms (HWD) of WD. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between morphological parameters of retina and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) changes, course of disease, type of disease and sexuality in WD. This is a single center, prospective study including forty-six WD patients and forty healthy controls (HC). We employed theGlobal Assessment Scale (GAS) to assess the the neurological sign of WD patients. Results: NWD had thinner superior parafovea zone (108.07±6.89 um vs. 114.40±5.54 um, p<0.01), temporal parafovea zone (97.17±6.65 um vs. 103.60±4.53 um, p<0.01), inferior parafovea zone (108.114±7.65 um vs. 114.93±5.84 um, p<0.01) nasal parafovea zone (105.53±8.01 um vs. 112.10±5.44 um, p<0.01) in inner retina thickness than HWD. The course of disease influenced the retina thickness, male patients had thinner inner retina thickness than female patients. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that WD had thinner inner retina thickness than HC and NWD had thinner inner retina thickness than HWD. We spectualted the thickness of inner retina layer may a potential useful biomarker for NWD.