Purpose:
To determine whether macular Ganglion Cell Complex (GCC) thinning corresponds to central visual field deficits.
Participants:
Fifty-five eyes from 37 patients in the Advanced Imaging for Glaucoma Study (www.AIGStudy.net) with perimetric glaucoma.
Methods:
A Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) system (RTVue by Optovue, Fremont, CA) was used to map the macula over a 7x6mm region. The images were exported using RTVue software v3.0 and then processed using software described earlier. The mean GCC thicknesses of the superior and inferior halves of each macula were calculated. Since the 7x6mm scan region corresponds to approximately 24x20 degrees, the central 5x4 point grid of the Humphrey SITA 24-2 Standard Visual Field (VF) was utilized for the visual field analysis. The mean deviation was calculated for each half (superior/inferior) of the central grid. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated for pairwise comparisons between VF and GCC thickness. All eyes were considered independently. Measurements from 125 normal eyes were used to normalize the GCC thickness in the figure.
Results:
Correlation analysis showed significant positive correlations between anatomically-related VF and GCC hemispheres (Superior VF to inferior GCC, r=0.562, p<0.0001; inferior VF to superior GCC, r=0.481, p<0.0003). The anatomically-unrelated hemispheres had no significant correlation (Superior VF to superior GCC r=-0.0249, p=0.857; inferior VF to inferior GCC, r=-0.0192, p=0.890).
Conclusions:
There is good correspondence between the locations of macular GCC thinning and visual field deficits in patients with perimetric glaucoma.
Keywords: imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • visual fields • imaging/image analysis: clinical