Abstract
Abstract: :
Background: By calculation from the mean age of the patients at time of diagnosis in patient groups with different stages of visual field loss (VFL) we showed that optic disc drusen (ODD) lead to a faster visual field progression than Normal Tension Glaucoma (Schargus M, et al. IOVS 2004;44: ARVO E–Abstract 966). The nature of the disease is now evaluated by the appearance of the optic disc in relation to VFL. Purpose: To evaluate weather:1. the extend of visibility of ODD's increases with age 2. eyes with more advanced VFL show greater visibility of ODD than eyes with beginning or moderate VFL 3. VFL is increasing with age 4. the increase of visibility of ODD is correlated with disc swelling. Methods: 144 eyes met the inclusion criteria: ultrasonographic confirmed ODD, reliable visual field findings, no other disease which can cause a VFL, photodocumentation. Patients with 2 study eyes will occur twice. VFL was staged according to the classification of Aulhorn. The visibility of ODD was categorised into three groups: no visible ODD, visible ODD grade I, visible ODD grade II. Size of the optic disc and amount of disc swelling were graded. Spearman–Rho test was used for statistics. Results: 1. In eyes with buried drusen (n=40) mean age was 35,4 (+/–21,0) years, in eyes with visible drusen grade I (n=61) 43,9 (+/–20,5) years, in eyes with visible drusen grade II (n=43) 47,8 (+/–15,0) years (p<0,01). 2. With increasing stage of the VFL there is an increasing visibility of ODD's (p<0,01). 3. In eyes with no VFL there was a mean age of 36,9 (+/–20,8) years, stage I 42,1 (+/–18,8) years, stage II 49,2 (+/–17,1) years, stage III 56,8 (+/–13,1) years, stage IV 57,3 (+/–4,8) years. With increasing VFL there was a significant increase of the age (p<0,01). 4. With increasing disc swelling there was no significant increase in the visibility of ODD. There was no significant correlation between stage of VFL and grade of disc swelling and size of optic disc. Conclusions: The older the patient, the higher the visibility of ODD, and the more severe the stage of VFL. The age correlation of the optic disc morphology and functional changes shows again that ODD is a severe progressive optic nerve disease.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • optic disc