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Post-COVID syndrome: VEGF and inner nuclear layer thickness.
Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 66:2 (2025)
Purpose :
Post-COVID syndrome (PCS) is a post-infectious disorder with
different subgroups. One of them showed an impaired capillary
microcirculation, mapped on the retina by OCT-angiography. As ACE-2
protein, being the target of SARS-CoV-2, is expressed in retinal inner
granular and nuclear layer (INL), recent data showed first evidence of
potential morphometric consequences of viral affection: Short-term (PCS
duration: 259 days) INL thickening was observed as potential consequence
of reactive ischemia due to an impaired retinal capillary flow. The
present study aimed to investigate level of vascular endothelial growth
factor (VEGF) in PCS patients compared to controls and its correlation
to long-term INL thickness. Methods :
A total of 46 subjects were recruited at the Department of
Ophthalmology, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg: 46 eyes of 23 PCS
patients and 46 eyes of 23 controls. Duration of PCS symptoms was
753±360 days. Thickness of INL was measured by Spectral Domain
Spectralis II (Heidelberg Engineering, Germany) using ETDRS circles of 1
mm and 3 mm around the fovea in the superior, inferior, nasal and
temporal sector. A projection artefact removal algorithm and TruTrack1
eye tracking were used to provide a high transverse and axial
resolution. A series of mixed models was employed to assess differences
between PCS and controls, with age and sex included as covariates. The
models are taking in account between-subject variation (fixed effects)
and the within-subject variation (random effects). The study was
approved by the local ethics committee and performed in accordance to
the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Results :
PCS patients showed VEGF level of 299.94 pg/ml; controls
yielded VEGF levels of 447.91 pg/ml. A significantly decrease of VEGF
level was observed in PCS patients compared to controls (p=0.0096). INL
level were 61.6±20 µm (PCS patients) and 64.2±20 µm (controls). PCS
patients had a small negative long-term effect of INL thickness compared
to controls (p<0.05). Additionally, sectorial analysis of INL
thickness showed strong and consistent negative effects (p<2e-16).
Level of VEGF (p=0.03) and sex (p=0.03) showed a significant effect on
INL thickness. Conclusions :
The present data suggest, that as result of short-term
ischemic thickening of INL a long-term thinning, might occur in a
subgroup of PCS patients, associated with VEGF level.
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Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Meeting abstract
ISSN (print) / ISBN
0146-0404
e-ISSN
1552-5783
Quellenangaben
Volume: 66,
Issue: 8,
Article Number: 2
Publisher
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Publishing Place
12300 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, Md 20852-1606 Usa
Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Research Unit BioGeoChemistry and Analytics (BGC)