Purpose-To evaluate the hypothesis that macular thickness correlates with the diagnosis of glaucoma.Design-Cross-sectional study.Participants-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. Main Outcome Measure-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 Reprint requests to Joel S. Schuman, MD, New England Eye Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, 750 Washington St, Box 450, Boston, MA 02111. Joel S. Schuman and Gadi Wollstein shared equal parts in the preparation of the manuscript.Presented in part at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), Orlando, Florida, 1999. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptOphthalmology. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2007 August 15. Published in final edited form as:Ophthalmology. 2003 January ; 110(1): 177-189. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptAROC 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.Glaucoma is a process in which a loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) results in characteristic optic nerve and visual field abnormalities. Detection of glaucomatous damage is typically through observation of the optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layer (NFL) and measurem...

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PURPOSE To evaluate the association of self-reported type 2 diabetes, anthropometric factors, alcohol consumption, and cigarette smoking with risk of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in a prospective cohort study of African-American women. METHODS From 1995 through 2007, 32,570 Black Women’s Health Study participants aged 21–69 at baseline were followed for incident POAG. Questionnaires were mailed biennially to update exposures and identify incident cases of POAG. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were derived from Cox regression models. RESULTS During 416,171 person-years of follow-up, 366 incident POAG cases were confirmed by physician report. After adjustment for potential confounders, the IRR comparing women with and without type 2 diabetes was 1.58 (95%CI=1.17–2.13), and the IRR comparing current with never alcohol consumers was 1.35 (95% CI=1.05–1.73). Among women age <50 years, associations with diabetes and alcohol consumption were stronger, and POAG was significantly associated with BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and both long-duration and high-intensity current smoking. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that type 2 diabetes and current alcohol consumption are independent risk factors for POAG in African-American women, and that in addition to those factors, overall and central adiposity and smoking may be associated with increased risk of early-onset POAG