Longitudinal Retinal and Choroidal Image Analysis in a Set of Monozygotic Twins

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 16; no. 2; p. e54557
• Main Authors: Hemesath, Angela M, Ma, Justin P, Polascik, Bryce W, Grewal, Dilraj, Fekrat, Sharon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Cureus Inc 20-02-2024; Cureus
• Subjects: Biometrics; Diabetes; Disease; Genetics; Healthcare Technology; Hypertension; Ophthalmology; Optic nerve; Pathology; Retina; Twin studies; Twins; Visual acuity; United States > US; California; longitudinal study; monozygotic twins; optical coherence tomography; retina; case study
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.54557

We analyzed multimodal retinal and choroidal imaging, including optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA), to assess differences and characterize variations in the retinal and choroidal structure and microvasculature between healthy monozygotic twins without ocular or systemic pathology over a five-year period. Retinal imaging of both subjects revealed normal age-related changes. There was up to an 11% difference in OCT and OCTA variables within the subjects, both at baseline and at five years, and there was up to an 18% difference in OCT and OCTA parameters between the subjects for both time points. Larger changes in subfoveal choroidal thickness and foveal avascular zone area were observed. Our observations suggest that the parafoveal superficial capillary plexus, choroidal vascularity index, central subfield thickness, retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, and ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness may be more heavily influenced by genetic, rather than environmental, factors. In contrast, subfoveal choroidal thickness and the foveal avascular zone area may be more heavily influenced by environmental factors. The environmental impact on retinal and choroidal structure and microvasculature is increasingly important to characterize, as such imaging parameters are being explored as potential biomarkers of systemic disease. These differences, as seen in these identical twin subjects, may be important considerations in supporting the security of biometric identifiers.