Structural and vascular assessment of the optic nerve head and macula in chronic Chagas disease

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 2263 - 9
• Main Authors: Agra, Cristiana L. M., Ventura, Camila V., da Fonte, Letícia D., Oliveira, Marcela R. V., Leal, Marília, Assunção, Maria Elisa L. S. M., Cavalcanti, Maria da Glória A. M., Alves, Silvia M. M., Soares, Ana Karine, Ventura, Liana O., Prata, Tiago S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.01.2025; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/699/255/1715; 692/699/3161/3172; 692/699/3161/3175; 692/699/75/230; Adult; Aged; Angiography; Cardiovascular diseases; Case-Control Studies; Chagas disease; Chagas Disease - complications; Chagas Disease - diagnostic imaging; Chagas Disease - pathology; Chronic Disease; Chronic infection; Eye diseases; Female; Glaucoma; Heart diseases; Hemoglobin; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Laguna ONhE; Macula; Macula Lutea - blood supply; Macula Lutea - diagnostic imaging; Macula Lutea - pathology; Male; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Neuropathy; Optic Disk - blood supply; Optic Disk - diagnostic imaging; Optic Disk - pathology; Optic nerve; Optic neuropathy; Optical coherence tomography angiography; Optics; Population studies; Retinal Ganglion Cells - pathology; Risk factors; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sexually transmitted diseases; STD; Tomography; Tomography, Optical Coherence; Vector-borne diseases; Laguna ONhE; Chagas disease; Hemoglobin; Macula; Optic nerve; Optical coherence tomography angiography
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-86582-y
• ISSN: 2045-2322

Chagas disease (CD), a parasitic infection, may have ocular repercussions in its cardiologic form, since a history of heart disease of other etiologies already has been established as a risk factor for neuropathies and maculopathies. The aim of the present study was to investigate preclinical structural and vascular optic nerve head (ONH) and macular parameters in patients with chronic CD. Nineteen patients with CD and 19 healthy subjects were evaluated with optical coherence tomography, optical coherence tomography angiography, and Laguna ONhE® software. The main outcome measures were the glaucoma discriminant factor, average peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, macular ganglion cell complex thickness, peripapillary vascular density (VD), foveal and parafoveal thickness, foveal avascular zone area, and total foveal and parafoveal VD from the superficial and deep capillary plexus that were compared between the two groups. No significant differences were observed among the studied variables. Although our findings suggested that the cardiovascular dysfunction resulting from chronic CD does not seem to cause significant structural or vascular preclinical changes to the ONH and the macula, the results herein benefit this patient population and may provide important preliminary information about the ocular impairment caused by the condition and its possible systemic complications.