Introduction
Vitiligo is a disease whose etiopathogenesis is unknown, characterized by the formation of depigmentation in different parts of the skin due to melanocyte destruction (1). The loss of pigment cells may not be limited to the skin, and various ocular abnormalities can be seen as melanocytes in the eyes develop from neural crest cells (2, 3, 4). These melanocytes are found in uveal tissues such as the eyelash, retinal pigment epithelium, choroid, ciliary body, and iris. Melanin in these tissues can disappear when destruction occurs in cutaneous melanocytes in vitiligo patients (5). As a result, some studies reported hypopigmented spots on the iris and retina, atrophic changes in the peripapillary area, degeneration in the retinal pigment epithelium and chorioretinal areas (2, 3, 6).
The choroid is a highly vascularized and pigmented tissue that feeds the outer retina, and especially the stroma of the choroidal layer contains a high number of melanocytes. Melanin, produced in melanocytes in the choroidal layer and stored in melanosomes, has a crucial role in protecting and absorbing light from intraocular reflection (4). There are a limited number of studies showing that the affected choroid is also affected in vitiligo in some systemic inflammatory diseases (5, 7).
Rogosic et al. found that there was an association between the duration of vitiligo and the development of glaucoma (8).
There are also studies indicating impaired retinal electrophysiological function in vitiligo patients (9, 10). Abnormal electro-oculographic findings of visual evoked potentials were observed, especially in patients with vitiligo with large skin involvement and longer disease duration (10).
We aimed to compare the choroid and the RNFL thicknesses of vitiligo patients using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) because it is not known enough how and how much the sensitive retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) of specific importance is affected in the evaluation of glaucomatous damage with the highly pigmented and vascularized choroidal tissue.