Metabolites
Systemic Inflammatory Markers, Thyroid Autoimmunity, and Neuroretinal Structure in Graves’ Disease: A Comparative OCT Study According to Ophthalmopathy Status
By Sinem Keser and Aykut Bulu.
Abstract
Background
Graves’ disease is a systemic autoimmune disorder that may affect ocular structures even in the absence of clinically apparent ophthalmopathy. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) enables objective assessment of neuroretinal structures, but the relationships between OCT findings, systemic inflammatory indices, thyroid hormone levels, and thyroid autoimmunity markers in Graves’ disease remain incompletely defined. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between OCT-derived neuroretinal measurements and systemic inflammatory, hormonal, and autoimmune markers according to ophthalmopathy status.
Methods
This retrospective cross-sectional study included 161 participants: 60 healthy controls, 50 Graves’ disease patients with ophthalmopathy (GO+), and 51 Graves’ disease patients without ophthalmopathy (GO−). Central macular thickness (CMT) and circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (cpRNFL) thickness measurements were obtained using spectral-domain OCT. Macular RNFL (mRNFL) thickness was not evaluated. Laboratory evaluation included complete blood count, glucose, urea, creatinine, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides, C-reactive protein (CRP), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (fT3), free thyroxine (fT4), anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO), and anti-thyroglobulin (anti-Tg) antibodies.