Abstract
Purpose :
Ocular dominance, or eye preference is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other. It is known that dominant eyes accompany thicker retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness compared with non-dominant eyes. In glaucoma, inter-eye difference in glaucoma severity between two eyes are often explained by the difference of IOP, spherical equivalent, optic disc characteristics such as disc tilt and torsion. We hypothesized that the ocular dominance may affect the inter-eye difference in paired eyes with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG).
Methods :
In this comparative case-control study, both eyes of 200 patients with POAG were included. Participants were imaged by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, and underwent dominant eye testing using a hole-in-a card test and the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire 25 (NEI VFQ-25) was evaluated. Group 1 was defined as patients with ocular dominance in a better eye, and group 2 as patients with ocular dominance in a worse eye.
Results :
The average age was 57.4±13.9 years old. The average mean deviation (MD)s of a better eye and a worse eye were -4.24 ±28.4 dB and -10.41 ± 50.29 dB, respectively. The interocular difference of MD was 1.16 ± 68.58 dB. Group 1 and group 2 consisted of 140 and 60 patients, respectively. The average RNFL thickness of better and worse eyes, and the MD of better eyes were not different between group 1 and 2 (p= 0.142, 0.697, and 0.931 ). However, in group 2, the MD of worse eyes were significantly lower (p = 0.006) and the interocular difference of MD were significantly greater than group 1 (p<0.001). The structure –function relationships were also significantly stiffer in group 2 (p <0.05). In multivariate analyses, the ocular dominance in a worse eye was found to be a significant predictor for the interocular difference of MD.
Conclusions :
Structure-function relationship was different according to the position of ocular dominance. In addition, the position of ocular dominance in a worse eye increased interocular difference of glaucomatous damage.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.