Abstract
Purpose: :
Macular thickness has been demonstrated to correlate with the diagnosis of glaucoma in adult eyes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate this hypothesis in pediatric patients.
Methods: :
Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT) was used to measure the macular thickness of all patients diagnosed with either physiological cupping, unilateral glaucoma, or bilateral glaucoma at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
Results: :
A total of 23 eyes from patients were scanned. In patients who were diagnosed with physiological cupping (N=15 eyes), the average macular thickness was 169.4 micrometers (µm). This was statistically significantly different (p value=0.027) compared to the average macular thickness of patients diagnosed with congenital bilateral glaucoma (N=4 eyes), where the average was 153.5 µm. In patients diagnosed with unilateral glaucoma, average macular thickness in the affected eye was 181.5 µm compared to 229 µm in the unaffected eye (N=4 eyes, p value=0.22).
Conclusions: :
Macular thickness in physiological cupping/normal eyes appears to be thicker than those eyes with glaucoma, and may be a good marker for the diagnosis of glaucoma in pediatric patients.
Keywords: imaging/image analysis: clinical • retina: proximal (bipolar, amacrine, and ganglion cells) • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound)