Relationship between Outer Retinal Thickness Substructures and Visual Acuity in Eyes with Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Abstract

The visual acuity in this group ranged from logMAR 0 to 1.3 with a mean of 0.23. Areas, thicknesses, and volumes of ONL, IS and OS, thicknesses of total retinal and RPE, and intensities of IS, OS, and RPE, showed statistically significant association (P < 0.05) with logMAR best corrected visual acuity. The highest correlations were observed for the ONL (thickness: r = -0.49, volume: -0.47, area: -0.50) and photoreceptor IS (thickness: -0.59, area: -0.63, volume: -0.53). The model with the highest correlation in this study included thicknesses of ONL, IS, OS and RPE, as well as area of ONL, IS, OS, RPE, and intensity of RPE. CONCLUSIONS. Although integrity of outer retinal substructures in the foveal central subfield correlates with visual acuity in the eyes of patients with dry AMD, the correlation is only moderate and does not fully explain the variability in acuity in these cases.