The objective of this study was to determine whether an observed peri-papillary ischemia is a potential biomarker of tick-borne infection (TI).
An experimental design analyzing the optic nerve to demonstrate peri-papillary ischemia and vessel density changes through ocular coherence tomography with angiography (OCT-A) in subjects with TI. Glaucoma was ruled out and the study engaged subjects in the age range between 8-40 years. All subjects in the experimental group experienced visual symptoms. Subjects in the control group were asymptomatic and not previously diagnosed with TI. The OCT-A scanned vessel density of peri-capillary plexus surrounding the optic nerves, the images were rated by percentage of vessel density. A two-tail t-test analysis was used to analyze the results.
The t-test for each measure comparing the difference-of-differences to a zero change at baseline returned statistically significant results demonstrating reduced vessel density for the subjects in the experimental group (p < .0001; 95% CI [32.37409-43.50091]).
The appearance of peri-papillary ischemia in persons below the age of 50 represents a potential screening biomarker of TI. Primary care physicians, ophthalmologists and optometrists who have patients presenting sudden onset of visual symptoms in addition to the appearance of peri-papillary ischemia should be tested to rule out a tick-borne infection.

Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.