The Influence of Smoking on Choroidal, Macular and Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness

Background: Smoking is one of the most serious health hazards because it affects every organ in our bodies. Cigarette smoking increases the chance of developing systemic and ocular vascular diseases significantly. Although the exact mechanism behind the association between ocular vascular disorders and smoking are unknown, the peripheral vasoconstriction action of nicotine is believed to lead to an increase in peripheral blood flow resistance. This study was designed to examine the impact of smoking with Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT) on the peripapillary retinal nerve fibre (RNFL), macular, and choroidal thickness.

Methods: This prospective study was done on 50. It included 25 healthy cigarette smokers with no systemic or ocular illness and another 25 age- and gender-matched healthy non-smokers.

Results: The smoking group had a substantial reduction in central macular and choroidal thickness as compared to the nonsmoker group. The RNFL peripapillary thickness across groups was not significantly altered, with the exception of the temporal (T) quadrant which was significantly thinner in the smoking group. This study discovered a substantial negative correlation between peripapillary RNFL, central macular thickness, and smoking exposure.

Conclusions: Smoking reduces the mean thickness of the peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (particularly in the temporal quadrant), the choroidal layer, and the central macular layer statistically significantly.