Adv Gerontol. 2025;38(5):779-784. doi: 10.34922/AE.2025.38.5.018.
ABSTRACT
The paper presents the results of a study of the thickness of the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer in elderly individuals with cerebrovascular disease (CD). The study involved 85 people (48% men, 52% women) aged 60 to 75 years. Based on the examination results, 3 groups of patients were formed: 1st (n=34) - patients with a combination of CD and chronic ischemic optic neuropathy; 2nd (n=30) - patients with CD and the absence of morphofunctional changes in the visual analyzer; 3rd (n=21) - individuals of comparable age without characteristic neuroimaging changes in the brain, no structural and functional disorders of the organ of vision. To identify structural transformations in the brain and organ of vision, MRI of the brain and tractography of the visual analyzer, structural optical coherence tomography of the retina with determination of the thickness of the nerve fiber layer of the latter were performed. Neuroimaging of the brain revealed that patients in groups 1 and 2 had diffuse white matter lesions in the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes with rarefaction of the white matter density in the brain, the presence of cerebrovascular and postischemic cysts and leukoaraiosis fields in these areas. In patients in both groups 1 and 2, the average thickness of the peripapillary retina nerve fiber layer decreases compared to the control group, with degenerative processes affecting both the lower and upper halves of the peripapillary retina (p˂0,001). Disease progression is due to a decrease in the thickness of the nerve fiber layer in the upper half of the peripapillary retina in the group of patients with complaints of visual impairment compared to group 2 (p˂0,01). The results obtained indicate the appearance of degenerative changes in the retina already at the preclinical stage of ischemic damage to the visual analyzer.
PMID:41854558 | DOI:10.34922/AE.2025.38.5.018