The macular thickness and volume in glaucoma: an analysis in normal and glaucomatous eyes using OCT

Abstract

Summary Purpose: To evaluate macular volume in normal and glaucomatous eyes using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). Methods: Fifty eyes of 30 patients (age: 49–68); 20 eyes normal, 15 eyes with early glaucoma and 15 eyes with advanced glaucoma have been studied with the commercially available OCT unit (OCT 2000) (Humphrey Zeiss, Dublin, CA, USA). All eyes were examined at a scan length of 3.44 mm vertically across the fovea. OCT macular retinal thickness maps were used to calculate macular volume. Results: We observed significant differences between groups. Normals (7.35 ± 0.455 mm3) and early glaucoma (7.09 ± 0.475 mm3), each had significantly greater volume than subjects with advanced glaucoma (6.678 ± 0.455 mm3). Conclusions: Volumetric analysis of macular thickness with OCT tomograms may be a useful method of documenting and monitoring patients with early glaucoma and advanced glaucoma. In our analysis, and according to the observations of other authors, OCT macular volumes correlates significantly with glaucoma status.

Correlation Between Macular Changes in Exfoliation Syndrome and Exfoliative Glaucoma

“…The mean macular thickness in the group with unilateral XFS (i.e. XFS clinically manifested on one eye but clinically undetectable and only demonstrated by electron microscopy on the fellow eye) was statistically significantly different on From the data obtained in this study we conclude that in glaucomatous eyes the mean macular thickness and volume decrease significantly compared to normal eyes, and this has also been proven in similar studies 2,[6][7][8][9] . Macular thickness and volume are significantly lower in glaucoma.…”

Correlation between macular and retinal nerve fibre layer Fourier-domain OCT measurements and visual field loss in chiasmal compression

“…Because Zeimer et al 23 proposed to use macular thickness as an indicator of glaucoma severity, several studies have investigated this idea using technologies to measure retinal thickness such as OCT. [12][13][14]24,25 Such studies were conducted based on the theory that the macular thickness might be superior to circumpapillary RNFL for quantification of axonal loss, because retinal ganglion cell bodies are 10-20 times the diameter of their axons and because the retinal ganglion cell is more than one cell thick in the macula. 26 However, despite the confirmation that macular thickness is in fact reduced in patients with glaucoma, several studies have reported circumpapillary RNFL thickness to be a more sensitive detector of glaucoma than macular thickness.…”

Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography Measurement of Macular Volume for Diagnosing Glaucoma

“…3 Many earlier studies have showed the diagnostic efficacy of the mean macular retinal thickness or volume using time-domain OCT (TD-OCT). [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] However, these clinical studies showed that the discrimination power of the macular retinal thickness or volume was not as good as that of the cpRNFL thickness. [7][8][9][10][11] It was assumed that because glaucomatous retinal atrophy mostly affects the RNFL and ganglion cell layer, the macular retinal thickness or volume that includes both the inner and the outer layer of the retina, the latter of which is hardly affected in glaucoma patients, might not be a sensitive parameter for detecting glaucoma.…”