Correlating OCT to Visual Field for Earlier Detection and Management of Glaucoma
Narrative Responses:
Purpose
The visual field and OCT taken individually give a limited perspective on glaucomatous changes and are subject to confounding factors such as inter-operator and inter-testing variability. We propose a clinical method that combines visual field and OCT analysis in a meaningful way to enhance glaucoma diagnosis and differentiate glaucoma mimickers.
Methods
We included 100 eyes in this non-randomized, un-masked, retrospective anaylsis. Inclusion into the study was based on a diagnosis of glaucoma with visual field changes or RNFL changes on the OCT. A Humphrey Visual Field printout, OCT nerve fiber analysis, and an RNFL tract diagram were individually photographed and indexed over each other using Photoshop Touch. We were interested in determining the degree of correlation between visual field and OCT changes with respect to the nerve tract diagram.
Results
There was a statistically significant correlation (p<0.05) between visual field loss and RNFL changes seen on the OCT. During our analysis, 2 eyes that did not reach statistical significance were found to be glaucoma mimickers as clinically proven by MRI.
Conclusion
This analysis has the potential to detect glaucoma changes earlier, improve treatment, and better differentiate glaucoma mimickers.