title: Effects of cigarette smoking on choroidal and retinal thickness and ocular pulse amplitude.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In our study, we aimed to show the effects of smoking on choroidal thickness and ocular pulse amplitude. It is known that the anatomy and physiologic functions of the choroid is important in ocular diseases like glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. Choroidal thickness is measured by the spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). The ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) is the difference between the systolic and diastolic intraocular pressure (IOP) and it is an index of choroidal perfusion.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional prospective observational study at the Turgut Ozal University Hospital setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  The test subjects were divided into two groups: the smokers group which consisted in 24 participants (20 male, 4 female) and the control group with 22 participants (16 male, 6 female).
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants underwent full ophthalmological examination including best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), spherical equivalent (SE) values of refractive errors, intraocular pressure (IOP), ocular pulse amplitude (OPA), central corneal thickness (CCT), axial length (AL) and choroidal thickness. The IOP and the OPA were measured with the dynamic contour tonometer. The CCT and the AL were measured with the Nidek AL-Scan (Nidek Co., Ltd., Gamagori, Japan). The choroidal thickness was measured by the Cirrus high-definition optical coherence tomography (Cirrus Version 6.0; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Gender did not differ significantly between the groups (p = 0.12). The age, SE, IOP, OPA, CCT and AL did not differ significantly in smokers and control groups (p = 0.12, p = 0.37, p = 0.54, p = 0.80, p = 0.56 and p = 0.82, respectively). The nasal, temporal, central retinal (p = 021, p = 021, p = 0.11) and nasal, temporal, central choroidal thicknesses (p = 0.80, p = 0.39, p = 0.75) did not differ significantly between smokers and control groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We could not find a significant difference in OPA, retinal and choroidal thicknesses between smokers and non smokers. Further studies including histopathological changes in larger groups are needed to show the effect of smoking on choroidal thickness especially in patients with ocular diseases like age-related macular degeneration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Medical School, Turgut Özal University , Ankara , Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet Serdar
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Dervişoğulları
authors.forename: Yüksel
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Totan
authors.forename: Aylin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tenlik
authors.forename: Aslihan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yuce
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002829:Choroid / Q000473:pathology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014026:Nicotiana; D014792:Visual Acuity
keywords: Choroidal thickness; ocular pulse amplitude; smoking