Investigation of the Effects of Anti-Epileptic Drug Treatment on Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer and Choroidal Thickness with Spectral Domain Optic Coherence Tomography

ABS TRACT Objective: To evaluate the effects of drug use on retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and choroid thickness in the treatment of epilepsy by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Material and Methods: Routine ophthalmic examinations were performed by including 66 epilepsy patients and 52 healthy individuals (control) using a different number of antiepileptic drugs, and RNFL and choroid thicknesses were measured with SD-OCT. In addition, RNFL and choroidal thickness values were compared in terms of multiple and single drug use in epilepsy patients. Results: When ex-amined in terms of RNFL thicknesses, the control group had higher values in all four quadrants (superior, inferior, nasal and temporal) and mean RNFL thickness values compared to the epilepsy group. While the difference between only nasal RNFL (p=0.564) values was not significant, the differences between all other quadrant RNFL values were statistically significant. In addition, in the epileptic group; Inferior quadrant RNFL values of those using multiple antiepileptic drugs were significantly lower than those using single antiepilep- tic drugs. In the evaluation of choroidal thickness, the control group had statistically significantly thicker choroidal values than the epilepsy group in all choroid measurements except for all subfoveal and temporal 500. While multi-drug use has no effect on choroid compared to single drug use, inferior RNFL (p=0.008) and ganglion cell layer (p<0.001) were found to be significantly thin. Conclusion: Significant reduction in both RNFL and choroidal thickness was found in patients using antiepileptic drugs. The use of antiepileptic drugs can be interpreted as the disease may increase the effects on the possible retina and choroid due to its pathophysiology.