A comparison of patterns of glaucomatous progression seen with OCT retinal ganglion cell progression maps to changes seen on the 10-2 visual fields

Abstract

Purpose : To better understand the relationship between patterns of macular damage as seen on 10-2 visual fields (VF) and those seen on retinal ganglion cell plus inner nuclear layer (RGC+) thickness maps with optical coherence tomography (OCT), RGC+ progression maps were created and compared to 10-2 VFs.

Methods : 18 eyes of 16 patients, with a diagnosis of glaucoma and evidence of progression on the circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer seen on the OCT disc cube scan (Topcon OCT 3000) in the region associated with the superior 10-2 VF were chosen. These eyes had cube scans centered on the fovea on 2 sessions separated by 3 or more years (mean 5.37±1.10) ranging from 3.34-6.99 years. A RGC+ progression (P) map (Fig 1C) was derived by taking the difference between the two RGC+ thickness maps (Fig 1A, B). The region of progressive thinning (ROP) on the inferior RGC+ p-map was enclosed within the white border and displaced in field view as in Fig 1D). The small squares are the 10-2 locations displaced as described in ref [1] to account for RGC displacement away from the fovea. The 10-2 locations within this progressing region are shown within the blue borders on the first and last 10-2 VFs (Fig. 2A, left panel).

Results : 18 eyes had inferior arcuate thinning on the RGC+ P-maps (Fig. 2A, B, left panels), indicating a progression of the RGC+ defect in width and/or depth; 17 of these had abnormal 10-2 on the first and/or second session. 15 of these 17 eyes showed a widening and/or deepening of the of 10-2 abnormal region in all or part of the corresponding 10-2 locations marked on the difference map, as in Fig. 2A, B. The remaining two eyes did not show progression in the corresponding region on the 10-2.

Conclusions : The regions progressing on the RGC+ P-map showed good topographic agreement with progressive changes on 10-2 VFs. This suggests that a method that allows for a topographic comparison of local changes in 10-2 VFs and RGC+ probability maps may aid the clinician in detecting and understanding progression of macular damage due to glaucoma. 1. Hood, Raza, et. al PRER 2013

This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.