Evaluation of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in children with autism spectrum disorders

BOZKURT A., SAY G. N., Sahin B., Usta M. B., Kalyoncu M., Kocak N., ...Daha Fazla

RESEARCH IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS, cilt.98, 2022 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 98
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.rasd.2022.102050
  • Dergi Adı: RESEARCH IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, EMBASE, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Psycinfo
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Autism spectrum disorders, Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, Optical coherence tomography, OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY, DISEASE SEVERITY, SCHIZOPHRENIA, ABNORMALITIES, ASSOCIATION
  • Atatürk Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Background: The study compared retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, macular thickness, and macular volume of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to those of healthy control group and correlated the RNFL thickness with symptom severity in children with ASD.Method: Forty children between the ages of 7 and 12 with normal intelligence levels and who were diagnosed with ASD as per DSM-5 were included in the ASD group. The control group consisted of healthy children, who were matched with subjects in the ASD group in terms of age and gender. The Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) and Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) were used to evaluate the severity of the disease in the cases diagnosed with ASD. The RNFL, macular thickness, and macular volume of all participants were measured optical coherence to-mography (OCT).Results: The temporal, temporal superior, nasal superior, temporal inferior, and global RNFL thicknesses were significantly lower in the ASD group than in the control group. There was no correlation between the RNFL thickness and ASD symptom severity. The macular thickness and volume were not significantly different between the groups.Conclusion: Our data suggest that lower RNFL thickness may relate to atypical brain development in the ASD, and this can be measured in the retina.