Quantitative evaluation of the optic nerve head in patients with unilateral visual field loss from primary open-angle glaucoma.
Measurable structural alterations of the optic nerve head may precede visual field abnormalities in early open-angle glaucoma. The authors studied the optic nerve heads of 10 patients with unilateral visual field loss from primary open-angle glaucoma, and 12 age- and sex-matched normal subjects. Topographic optic nerve head parameters were measured with a system of computerized image analysis (Rodenstock Analyzer, G. Rodenstock Instrumente GMBH, Munich, W. Germany). In patients with asymmetric primary open-angle glaucoma, eyes with normal visual fields had a slightly larger mean (+/- standard error of the mean) disc rim area (0.90 +/- 0.04 mm2) than eyes with glaucomatous visual field defects (0.78 +/- 0.05 mm2). However, both sets of eyes in the asymmetric primary open-angle glaucoma patients had smaller mean disc rim areas (P less than 0.0007) than did the control group (1.27 +/- 0.09 mm2). These findings support the hypothesis that loss of the optic disc rim can be detected before perimetric abnormalities develop in primary open-angle glaucoma.
Caprioli
J
J
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510.
Miller
J M
JM
Sears
M
M
D005260:Female; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009898:Optic Disk / Q000473:pathology*; D009900:Optic Nerve / Q000473:pathology*; D012984:Software; D058609:Visual Field Tests / Q000295:instrumentation; D014794:Visual Fields