title: Inner retinal layer comparisons of eyes with exudative age-related macular degeneration and eyes with age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The incidence of glaucoma increases with age, as does age-related macular degeneration (AMD), with the reported incidence of glaucoma among AMD subjects being 5.4 %. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can detect glaucomatous changes in the inner retina with high sensitivity. The purpose of this study was to compare ganglion cell complex (GCC) parameters and the thickness of the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in normal eyes to that observed in eyes with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and eyes with both AMD and glaucoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  The GCC components [GCC thickness, focal loss volume (FLV), and global loss volume (GLV)] and peripapillary RNFL thickness were measured using RTVue spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT). The GCC and RNFL parameters of normal eyes, AMD eyes treated with different types of therapy, and AMD eyes with and without glaucoma were evaluated using nonparametric tests. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine whether the GCC and RNFL parameters could be used to differentiate AMD eyes with glaucoma from those without glaucoma.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-one normal eyes, 120 eyes with AMD, and 23 eyes with AMD and glaucoma were studied. The values of all GCC components were significantly different in the normal eyes from those observed in the eyes with AMD, except for the RNFL thicknesses. The GCC and RNFL parameters were not significantly different between the eyes receiving different types of therapy among the AMD groups. The RNFL thickness was significantly correlated with glaucoma diagnosis in AMD eyes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate that there is damage to the inner retinal layers in eyes with AMD. The RNFL thickness can be a useful parameter for differentiating eyes with AMD from eyes with both AMD and glaucoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-Ku, Hiroshima, 734-8551, Japan, inersia_uteri@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Ulfah
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rimayanti
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kiuchi
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamane
authors.forename: Miftahul Akhyar
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Latief
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mochizuki
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akita
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005122:Exudates and Transudates; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D005901:Glaucoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D008297:Male; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000473:pathology*; D010778:Photochemotherapy; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014065:Tonometry, Ocular; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology; D057135:Wet Macular Degeneration / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors