Optic disc perfusion in eyes with primary open angle glaucoma and normal tension glaucoma using optical coherence tomography-based microangiography

Abstract

Purpose : To investigate optic disc perfusion differences in normal, primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), and normal tension glaucoma (NTG) eyes using optical microangiography (OMAG) based optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography technique.

Methods : One eye from each subject was scanned with a 68 kHz Cirrus HD-OCT 5000-based OMAG prototype system centered at the optic nerve head (ONH) (Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc, Dublin, CA). Microvascular images were generated from the OMAG dataset by detecting the differences in OCT signal between consecutive B-scans. The pre-laminar layer (preLC) was isolated by a semi-automatic segmentation program (Figure 1).

Results : Glaucomatous eyes had significantly lower optic disc perfusion in preLC in all three perfusion metrics (p<0.0001) compared to normal eyes, but no differences were observed between POAG and NTG eyes. Univariate analysis revealed significant correlation between optic disc perfusion, visual field (VF) mean deviation (MD), VF pattern standard deviation (PSD), and rim area in both POAG and NTG groups (p≤0.0288) (Figure 2).

Conclusions : Optic disc perfusion detected by OMAG showed similar reduction between POAG and NTG groups compared to normal controls. Disc perfusion was significantly correlated with VF MD, VF PSD, and rim area in glaucomatous eyes. Vascular changes at the optic disc as measured using OMAG may provide useful information for diagnosis and monitoring of glaucoma.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.