Tear Fluid Proteins and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) analysis as Novel, Non-invasive Biomarkers of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH)

IIH is a vision-threatening disorder, which presents with raised intracranial pressure, headaches, vision loss and it affects obese women of childbearing age. IIH has high morbidity rates and requires rapid intervention to preserve vision. Globally, IIH incidence is increasing alongside the obesity epidemic. In the UK, annual IIH-associated costs have increased, with £462 million costs predicted by 2030. Therefore, It is imperative to improve our understanding of IIH pathophysiology to address the needs of growing patient numbers.
Currently, serum/cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sampling forms the mainstay of IIH diagnosis, but are invasive procedures. Inflammation may influence IIH pathology and studies have shown changes to inflammatory proteins (cytokines) in serum/CSF of IIH patients, indicating they may be biomarkers. Pilot data by our group showed significantly increased tear levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and IL-8, in those with IIH. This work will be the first study of tear fluid cytokines and metabolic proteins of IIH patients, which will be assessed alongside other demographic and clinical parameters (eye health measures), to determine if there are correlations. It is anticipated this work may identify non-invasive biomarkers of IIH.