Scientific Reports (May 2022)

Retinal pigment epithelium melanin imaging using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography for patients with retinitis pigmentosa

  • Daiki Sakai,
  • Seiji Takagi,
  • Kota Totani,
  • Midori Yamamoto,
  • Mitsuhiro Matsuzaki,
  • Masahiro Yamanari,
  • Satoshi Sugiyama,
  • Satoshi Yokota,
  • Akiko Maeda,
  • Yasuhiko Hirami,
  • Michiko Mandai,
  • Masayo Takahashi,
  • Makoto Nakamura,
  • Yasuo Kurimoto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11192-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the distribution of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) melanin in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) using entropy measurements by custom-made polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) images, and compare entropy with the intensity of short-wavelength (SW) and near-infrared (NIR) autofluorescence (AF). We retrospectively reviewed the retinal images, including PS-OCT, SW-AF, and NIR-AF of patients with RP who had a hyperautofluorescent ring on AF. A total of 12 eyes of 12 patients (8 women and 4 men; mean age: 37.9 years) were included. There was a strong positive correlation between entropy value and NIR-AF intensity (r = 0.626, p < 0.001), and there was a very weak negative correlation between entropy value and SW-AF (r = − 0.197, p = 0.001). The mean values of the entropy in the foveal, temporal (2 mm from the fovea), and nasal (2 mm from the fovea) sections were 0.41 (± 0.09), 0.29 (± 0.08), and 0.26 (± 0.08), respectively. The entropy was significantly higher in the foveal section than in the temporal and nasal sections (p = 0.002 and p = 0.003, respectively). There was no significant difference between the entropies values for the temporal and nasal sections (p = 0.157). Age, logMAR best-corrected visual acuity, ellipsoid zone width, and central retinal thickness were not correlated with foveal entropy. We presented RPE melanin imaging in patients with RP using PS-OCT for the first time. PS-OCT can be a useful tool for monitoring patients with RP.