Abstract
Purpose :
Deciding whether to treat a glaucoma suspect or not is a common challenge. A novel office-based pattern electroretinography (pERG) technique recently became available. Here we present results of a pilot retrospective case-control study to see if the baseline characteristics of patients can predict improvement of ganglion cells response after treatment of glaucoma suspect.
Methods :
We reviewed Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery institution records from April to September 2019 and found 8 patients (15 eyes), mean age (SD) of 57.8 (12.9) years, who were diagnosed as a glaucoma suspect and had pERG, were treated and had follow up pERG 1-3 months after starting glaucoma therapy. Patients were divided into 2 groups: improved magnitude/magnitude D ratio (hereinafter the “ratio”) color code of pERG (group 1, N=5), and unchanged or worsening of the same parameter (group 2, N=10). We analyzed if age, gender, central corneal thickness, intraocular pressure (IOP) before treatment, concomitant eye pathology, mode of treatment, characteristics of pERG could predict improvement of ganglion cells response as measured by color code for the ratio on pERG using paired t-test and Fisher’s exact test. Pearson correlation between the aforementioned parameters and change in the ratio before and after treatment were also assessed.
Results :
Eyes that showed improvements in the color code of the ratio had significantly lower initial magnitude D compared to those that did not (group 1 0.49(0.21), group 2 0.97(0.56), p=0.035). Both Initial magnitude D and initial “ratio” positively correlated with the “ratio” change (r=0.75, p=0.001, r=0.87, p=0.00003 respectively). Other variables did not have a significant association on the “ratio” and its color code (p>0.05). IOP significantly decreased in all patients (5.5(3.7), p=0.00005).
Conclusions :
Characteristics of pERG such as initial magnitude D and magnitude/magnitude D ratio may have predictive value in deciding the necessity of treatment for glaucoma suspect. Further research with a larger population is needed.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.