The Effect of Smoking on Macular, Choroidal, and Retina Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness

Abstract

Objectives:This study aimed to compare the thickness of the macula, choroid, and peripapillary retina nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in smokers with those of healthy, nonsmoking individuals using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).Materials and Methods:Sixty-eight healthy smokers with an average of 19.75 pack-years and 71 nonsmoker subjects (control group) were included in the study. Macular thickness, RNFL thickness, and choroidal thickness (CT) were measured by SD-OCT.Results:The mean age of the smokers was 42.76±6.97 years and that of the control group was 41.15±11.61 years (p=0.32). Inferonasal and temporal RNFL thicknesses were 121.60±27.40 μm and 69.75±9.82 μm in the smokers group and 109.05±21.71 μm and 75.95±15.01 μm in the nonsmoker group, respectively. The differences were statistically significant (p=0.003, p=0.005, respectively). Central macular thickness (CMT) was 222.97±18.95 μm and subfoveal CT was 369.52±105.36 μm in the smoker group, while these values were 222.98±17.72 μm and 347.42±104.63 μm in the nonsmoker group, respectively. There were no significant differences in these comparisons (p=0.99, p=0.49, respectively). A significant negative correlation was found between smoking exposure and nasal and temporal CT.Conclusion:The results of our study revealed that RNFL thickness was decreased but CMT and CT were not affected in healthy chronic smokers.

Effect of smoking on the macula and optic nerve integrity using optical coherence tomography angiography

“…Using OCTA we found no significant difference between both groups as regards the CMT (foveal subfield thickness) and the temporal parafoveal subfield thickness, but other macular subfields thickness was significantly lower in the smokers group. Other studies using either OCTA 5,12 or OCT 14–19 found that there was no significant difference in CMT between smokers and non-smokers. All of these results were matching with our study findings.…”

Renal function and lipid metabolism are major predictors of circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness—the LIFE-Adult Study

“…Interestingly, these data are in accordance with the results from a recent meta-analysis [ 6 ] where a positive correlation between current or former smoking and global cpRNFLT was also found in the Rotterdam II and in the Montrachet Study [ 6 ]. A further small case-control study by Teberik [ 39 ] also shows numerically thicker RNFL in the three nasal sectors (but the statistical significance has been achieved only in the NI sector). As smoking potentially interferes with lipid profile [ 40 ], we investigated the mediating effects of smoking status and lipid profile.…”

Genetic variation affects morphological retinal phenotypes extracted from UK Biobank Optical Coherence Tomography images

“…Here, the two inner retinal layers, the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell inner plexiform layer (GCIPL), taper to non-existence at the centre, the fovea, allowing less light scattering for incoming photons and so providing the region of highest acuity vision (Figure 1B) [1]. The morphology of the macula has been studied previously, with variation in physiology associated with ethnicity [2, 3], age [4, 5] and lifestyle variables such as smoking [6]. There are also several diseases that exhibit changes in the thickness of the inner retina, such as multiple sclerosis [7, 8], diabetic retinopathy [9, 10], Parkinson’s disease [11] and other neurological disorders [12, 13, 14, 15].…”