STRUCTURE - FUNCTION RELATIOSHIP IN GLAUCOMA USING ENHANCED DEPTH IMAGING OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY-DERIVED PARAMETERS

Abstract

Purpose : To investigate structural and functional correlations in glaucoma patients using enhanced depth imaging spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (EDI OCT)-derived parameters.

Methods : We prospectively enrolled glaucomatous patients with a wide range of disease stages. All participants underwent EDI OCT imaging (Spectralis; Heidelberg Engineering Co., Heidelberg, Germany). The following optic nerve head (ONH) parameters were measured on serial vertical EDI OCT B-scans by two experienced examiners masked to patients clinical data: lamina cribrosa thickness, prelaminar neural tissue (PLNT) area, lamina cribrosa posterior displacement and superior (sMRW) and inferior minimum rim width (iMRW). Only good quality images were considered, and whenever both eyes were eligible, one was randomly selected for analysis. Scatter plots were constructed to investigate correlations between each anatomical parameter and patient’s visual status (based on visual field mean deviation index [MD] values).

Results : A total 30 eyes of 30 patients were included. Patients were divided according to MD values into 3 groups: mild (G1), moderate (G2) and severe (G3) glaucoma (> -6dB, -6 to -12dB, and <-12dB, respectively). Mean values for PLNT area, iMRW and sMRW differed significantly between disease stage groups (p≤0.015). Significant structure-function correlations were found for PLNT area (R²=0.30), sMRW (R²=0.22) and iMRW (R²=0.28; P≤0.01) (Figure 1). No significant correlations were found for none of the other EDI OCT parameters (p>0.05).

Conclusions : Evaluating the distribution pattern and structure-function correlations of different laminar and pre-laminar EDI OCT-derived parameters in glaucomatous patients, we found better results for neural tissue based indices. The diagnostic utility of each parameter deserves further investigations.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.