TABLE 3.
OCT studies in ALS patients.
| Study and year of publication | OCT device | Type of study | Number of ALS/control patients | Disease duration (months) | ALSFRS-R score | Alterations in visual functions | Differences ALS vs. control |
Correlation OCT-ALSFRS-R | |||||
| Macula | GCC | pRNFL | mRNFL | ONL | INL | ||||||||
| Roth et al., 2013 | Cirrus HD-OCT | Cross-sectional | 76/54 | 42 ± 34 (7–166) | 34 ± 7 | – | – | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Ringelstein et al., 2014 | SD-OCT Spectralis | Cross-sectional | 24/24 | 22.3 ± 22.57 (3–120) | – | – | No | ↓ | ↓ | No | ↓ | No | |
| Hübers et al., 2016 | SD-OCT Spectralis | Cross-sectional | 71/20 | 12 (2–98) | 40 (16–48) | – | – | No | ↓ | No | No | ↓ | – |
| Volpe et al., 2015 | SD-OCT Spectralis | Cross-sectional | 16/15 | 85.3 ± 110.79 | – | = VA, color vision, and CS. Histopathology study | – | – | ↓ | ↓ | – | No. OCT inversely correlates with disease duration | |
| Simonett et al., 2016 | SD-OCT Spectralis | Cross-sectional | 21/21 | 43.2 ± 43.4 (10–197) | 28.1 ± 12.5 | – | – | No | – | ↓ | No | No | No. (correlation FVC% and FEV1%) |
| Mukherjee et al., 2017 | SD-OCT Spectralis | Cross-sectional | 21/normative OCT database | – | 30 ± 10 | VA (Snellen) | – | – | ↓Global and six sectors | – | – | – | No |
| Rohani et al., 2018 | SD-OCT Topcon 3D | Cross-sectional | 20 | 14.5 ± 11.3 | 33.1 ± 3.8 | – | – | – | ↓Mean, sup and nasal | – | – | – | Direct correlation |
| Liu et al., 2018 | HD-OCT Cirrus 4000 | Cross-sectional | 51/126 | 18.46 ± 6.16 (6–72) | 39.58 ± 10.41 (10–48) | VF: MS↓ and ↑sLV | No | No | ↑Nasal quadrant | – | – | – | Macula direct correlation (temporal Q correlated with duration of the disease) |
| Abdelhak et al., 2018 | SD-OCT Spectralis | Cross-sectional | 34/20 | 12 (7–17) | – | Diameters of retinal vessels | – | No | No | – | ↓ | No | Retinal thickness inverse correlation |
| Rojas et al., 2019 | HD-OCT Cirrus 4000 | Prospective longitudinal | 38/20 | 10.80 ± 5.5 (1–18) | Baseline 29.50 ± 14.89 Follow-up 35.6 ± 14.08 (some patients dead) | VA and VF | ↑Temporal and ↑inferior. Follow-up: ↓ Inferior | No | ↓Sup, ↓inf. ↓H3, H5, H6, H12 ↑H8 | – | – | – | pRNFL inverse correlation |
ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; GCC, ganglion cell complex; RNFL, retinal nerve fiber layer; pRNFL, peripapillary RNFL; mRNFL, macular RNFL; ONL, outer nuclear layer; INL, inner nuclear layer; VA, visual acuity; CS, contrast sensitivity; FVC%, Forced vital capacity% predicted; FEV1%, forced expiratory volume in 1 s% predicted; MS, mean sensibility; sLV, square of loss variance; ALSFRS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale.