Evaluation of retinal and choroidal changes by spectral domain optical coherent tomography in patients treated with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine
Amir M. Ismail, Hossam Alddin M. Khalil, Abd Alrahman S. Abd AlaleemBackground
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an antimalarial drug, is widely used worldwide since its role in the treatment of autoimmune diseases was discovered, and given its wide indication, there are many studies to detect its side effects, especially the irreversible category, including Bull’s eye maculopathy. To assess early and late retinal and choroidal changes in patients treated by HCQ using spectral domain optical coherent tomography.
Patients and methods
In our study, a noninterventional, cross-sectional, case–control study was conducted on 308 eyes, which were classified as follow: group 1 (106 eyes of 53 patients were treated with HCQ more the 5 years), group 2 (102 eyes of 51 patients were treated with HCQ 2.5 years), and control group (100 eyes of 50 person of normal population).
Results
Our result was a variable degree of increased thickness in different parafoveal and ganglion sectors in early duration of treatment that may be a sign of early pathology onset, then a highly significant decrease of central foveal thickness, parafoveal thickness, and ganglion cell thickness in negative relation with duration of HCQ treatment, and highly significant increase of subfoveal choroidal thickness in positive relation with duration of HCQ treatment.
Conclusion
According to our results, it is necessary to apply optical coherent tomography as a pretreatment with antimalarial drugs to depend on it as a baseline measurement of the retinal layers’ thickness, as the early signs may be an increase thickness, followed by the end result of thickness decrease.