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Levodopa may protect RNFL from damage in Parkinson's disease patients

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Compared with dopamine agonists, levodopa may have a protective effect on the retinal nerve fiber layer in patients with Parkinson's disease, according to a prospective study by researchers in Turkey.

G.F. Yavas and colleagues used the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (Heidelberg Engineering) to investigate the effect of levodopa and dopamine agonists on the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in 44 patients with Parkinson's disease treated with either of the drugs as monotherapy. They compared these patients with a control group of 21 subjects.

Both groups were similar in age, the authors noted.

In patients with Parkinson's disease, the RNFL was significantly decreased (P = .004), but no significant changes were detected in either rim area (P = .224) or rim volume (P = .804), according to the study.

However, patients treated with levodopa showed a significantly greater rim area, rim volume and RNFL, while these three parameters were the thinnest among patients receiving dopamine agonists, the authors reported.

The study is published in the September-October issue of European Journal of Ophthalmology.