Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To analyze the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) with optical coherence tomography (STRATUS OCT) for characteristic patterns of damage in normal tension glaucoma (NTG) and high tension glaucoma (HTG) eyes. Methods: A total of 26 eyes of 14 NTG patients and 36 eyes of 22 HTG patients were included in the study. Each patient met the following criteria: diagnosis of HTG or NTG, reliable and good quality OCT scan performed, corrected visual acuity no worse than 20/50, visual field mean deviation (MD) ≥ –14 dB, no previous eye surgery except for cataract removal, and no other retinal disease. The STRATUS OCT(OCT3) was used to determine the RNFL thickness with the Fast RNFL Thickness protocol. The average total thickness, thickness in each quadrant, and thickness in each clock hour segment were compared between the NTG and HTG groups, and analyzed for statistical significance. Results: The NTG and HTG groups showed similar patterns of damage. The inferior quadrant was the most frequent affected quadrant in both the NTG group and HTG group. No difference between the 2 groups regarding the number of the quadrants involved. However, the NTG group displayed significant thicker RNFL than the HTG group in the following quadrant and clock hour sectors : the temporal quadrant (p = .0214), 9 o’clock–temporal (p = .00393), and 10 o’clock–superior temporal (p = .0764) segments. Conclusions: The RNFL thickness measurements made by STRATUS OCT show similar patterns of damage between NTG and HTG patients. No characteristic patterns of damage can be noticed in the diagnosis of NTG.
Keywords: imaging/image analysis: clinical • nerve fiber layer • imaging/image analysis: clinical