Peripapillary retinal thickness maps in the evaluation of glaucoma patients: a novel concept

Kayoung Yi; Mircea Mujat; Wei Sun; B Hyle Park; Johannes F de Boer; Teresa C Chen

doi:10.5402/2011/146813

Peripapillary retinal thickness maps in the evaluation of glaucoma patients: a novel concept

ISRN Ophthalmol. 2011 Sep 7:2011:146813. doi: 10.5402/2011/146813. eCollection 2011.

Authors

Kayoung Yi¹, Mircea Mujat², Wei Sun³, B Hyle Park⁴, Johannes F de Boer⁵, Teresa C Chen⁶

Affiliations

¹ Glaucoma Service, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Department of Ophthalmology, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Seoul 150-950, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Dermatology, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Biomedical Optics Group, Physical Sciences Inc., Andover, MA 01810-1077, USA.
³ Department of Dermatology, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
⁴ Department of Dermatology, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
⁵ Department of Dermatology, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Department of Physics and Astronomy, VU University, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁶ Glaucoma Service, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Abstract

Purpose. To show how peripapillary spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) retinal thickness (RT) maps can complement retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness maps in the evaluation of glaucoma patients. Methods. After a complete eye exam with standard fundus photography and visual field testing, normal and glaucomatous eyes were imaged with an experimental SDOCT system. From SDOCT images, RNFL thickness and RT maps were constructed and then correlated with disc photography and visual field testing. Results. Two normal eyes of 2 patients and 5 eyes of 4 glaucoma patients were imaged. Although both RNFL and RT maps correlated well with visual field defects, glaucomatous arcuate defects were sometimes more easily identified in the RT maps. Conclusions. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to show that peripapillary SDOCT RT maps may provide important supplemental information to RNFL thickness maps in the evaluation of glaucoma patients.