Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Language
English
Publication Date
12-28-2025
Journal
Bioengineering
DOI
10.3390/bioengineering13010035
PMID
41595967
PMCID
PMC12837173
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
12-28-2025
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to determine whether retinal vasculatures differ between participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) and controls. Ninety participants (51 SSD, mean age 35.8 ± 13.5, and 39 controls, mean age 35.5 ± 11.4) underwent 3 × 3 mm2 macular and 6 × 6 mm2 optic nerve head (ONH) optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) scans. En face macula and ONH region images were divided into quadrants, binarized, and then skeletonized. Skeletonized vessel densities were compared between our two groups. Additionally, the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) size and acircularity index were compared between the two groups. There was significantly decreased vessel density in the temporal region of the ONH in the SSD group compared to controls (p = 0.033). Interestingly, the decreased vessel density was already present in patients with SSD in younger adulthood as compared to the controls (p = 0.006). There were no significant group differences in vessel density in any other region of the ONH, the ONH overall, any region of the macula, or the macula overall. There were also no significant group differences in the FAZ size or acircularity index. These data suggest there may be abnormal peripapillary retinal vasculature in patients with SSD. Whether this is a specific ocular vascular deficit or related to more systemic vascular abnormalities in SSD remains to be determined.
Keywords
optical coherence tomography angiography, retinal vasculature, schizophrenia
Published Open-Access
yes
Recommended Citation
Sherman, Caroline Simon; Gunnarsson, Erik; Hidalgo, Nycole; et al., "Retinal Vasculature in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder" (2025). Faculty, Staff and Student Publications. 4396.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/uthmed_docs/4396