Abstract
Purpose :
To examine the differences in the peripapillary vascular parameters and foveal-avascular-zone (FAZ) vascularity parameters between primary open-angle-glaucoma (POAG) patients vs. exfoliation-glaucoma (XFG) patients vs. healthy subjects.
Methods :
:This is cross-sectional study, comparative clinical-study. POAG and XFG patients and healthy subjects underwent a comprehensive ophthalmic examination, including visual field, optical-coherence-tomography (OCT) and OCT-angiography (OCTA) of the optic-disc and FAZ. Differences in peripapillary vessel-density (VD), perfusion-density (PD), and FAZ area and circularity were examined between groups, as well as correlations between clinical parameters and vascularity parameters for each glaucoma group.
Results :
A total of 109 subjects were analyzed, including 45 with POAG, 30 with XFG, and 34 controls. The average peripapillary VDs were lowest among the XFG patients and highest among the controls (P < 0.05, ANOVA). The average peripapillary PD of the central ring was lowest in the PXF group and highest in the control group (P = 0.02, ANOVA). A significant negative correlation was found between the average peripapillary VDs and PDs of the inner ring and full ring and disease severity of the POAG patients. There was a significant positive correlation between the average peripapillary PDs of the central rings and full ring and the central-macular-thickness of the XFG patients (P < 0.01 and P < 0.04, respectively, Pearson correlation).
Conclusions :
Peripapillary vascular parameters of the POAG and XFG patients were lower compared to those of normal participants. Investigations into the roles of OCTA as a diagnostic parameter for predicting the risk of glaucoma development and progression are warranted.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.