Macular abnormalities in Italian patients with retinitis pigmentosa

AIM: To investigate the prevalence of macular abnormalities in a large Caucasian cohort of patients affected by retinitis pigmentosa (RP). METHODS: A retrospective study was performed by reviewing the medical records and optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans in a cohort of 581 RP patients in order to assess the presence of macular abnormalities —that is, cystoid macular oedema (CMO), epiretinal membrane (ERM), vitreo-macular traction syndrome, and macular hole. RESULTS: Macular abnormalities were observed in 524 (45.1%) out of the 1161 examined eyes. The most frequent abnormality was CMO, observed in 237 eyes (20.4%) from 133 patients (22.9%), followed by ERM, assessed in 181 eyes (15.6%) from 115 patients (19.8%). Moreover, vitreo-retinal abnormalities were significantly (p<0.05) associated with older age, cataract surgery, or cataract. CMO appeared to be significantly (p<0.05) associated with female gender, autosomic dominant inheritance pattern, and cataract. CONCLUSIONS: Macular abnormalities are more frequent in RP compared to the general population. For that reason, screening RP patients with OCT is highly recommended to follow-up the patients, evaluate the natural history of disease, and identify those patients who could benefit from current or innovative therapeutic strategies.