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Head tilt may affect spectral-domain OCT measurements

Br J Ophthalmol. 2011;95:1547-1551.

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Head tilt may influence retinal nerve fiber layer and macular thickness measurements obtained using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, a study found.

The study included 30 right eyes that underwent measurements at baseline head position and at right and left tilt positions using Cirrus HD OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec). Right tilt induced a mean 8.27° of counterclockwise rotation of the optic disc, and left tilt induced a mean 8.47° of clockwise rotation.

Right tilt resulted in significant superior-temporal retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickening, inferior-temporal RNFL thinning, superior outer macular thickening and inferior outer macular thinning. Conversely, left tilt caused significant superior-temporal RNFL thinning, inferior-temporal RNFL thickening, superior outer macular thinning, nasal outer macular thickening and inferior outer macular thickening.

The induced changes could affect detection of glaucoma progression because they are greater than changes potentially caused by OCT variability, the study authors said. Changes appeared to be related to thinning and thickening in neighboring clock-hour sectors.