Optical coherence tomography measurement of macular and nerve fiber layer thickness in normal and glaucomatous human eyes.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the hypothesis that macular thickness correlates with the diagnosis of glaucoma.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study.


METHODS
We studied 367 subjects (534 eyes), including 166 eyes of 109 normal subjects, 83 eyes of 58 glaucoma suspects, 196 eyes of 132 early glaucoma patients, and 89 eyes of 68 advanced glaucoma patients.


METHODS
We used optical coherence tomography (OCT) to measure macular and nerve fiber layer (NFL) thickness and to analyze their correlation with each other and with glaucoma status. We used both the commercial and prototype OCT units and evaluated correspondence between measurements performed on the same eyes on the same days.


METHODS
Macular and NFL thickness as measured by OCT.


RESULTS
All NFL parameters both in prototype and commercial OCT units were statistically significantly different comparing normal subjects and either early or advanced glaucoma (P < 0.001). Inner ring, outer ring, and mean macular thickness both in prototype and commercial OCT devices were found to be significantly different between normal subjects and advanced glaucomatous eyes (P < 0.001). The outer ring was the only macular parameter that could significantly differentiate between normal and early glaucoma with either the prototype or commercial OCT unit (P = 0.003, P = 0.008, respectively). The area under the receiver operator characteristic (AROC) curves comparing mean NFL thickness between normal and advanced glaucomatous eyes was 1.00 for both the prototype and commercial OCT devices for eyes scanned on both machines on the same day. The AROC comparing mean macular thickness in normal and advanced glaucomatous eyes scanned on both machines on the same day was 0.88 for the prototype OCT device and 0.80 for the commercial OCT.


CONCLUSIONS
Both macular and NFL thickness as measured by OCT showed statistically significant correlations with glaucoma, although NFL thickness showed a stronger association than macular thickness. There was good correspondence between findings using both the prototype and commercial OCT units. Macular and NFL thickness measurements made with OCT may have usefulness in the clinical assessment of glaucoma.
Guedes
Viviane
V
New England Eye Center, Tufts School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111, USA.
Schuman
Joel S
JS
Hertzmark
Ellen
E
Wollstein
Gadi
G
Correnti
Anthony
A
Mancini
Ronald
R
Lederer
David
D
Voskanian
Serineh
S
Velazquez
Leonardo
L
Pakter
Helena M
HM
Pedut-Kloizman
Tamar
T
Fujimoto
James G
JG
Mattox
Cynthia
C
D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003941:Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological; D005260:Female; D005901:Glaucoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007368:Interferometry; D008027:Light; D008266:Macula Lutea / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000473:pathology*; D009798:Ocular Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis; D009898:Optic Disk / Q000473:pathology*; D014054:Tomography / Q000379:methods; D014794:Visual Fields