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Retinal thickness, central corneal thickness tied to glaucoma risk in OH patients
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and central corneal thickness seem to be correlated to the risk of developing glaucoma in patients with ocular hypertension, Italian researchers found.
Stefano Miglior, MD, and colleagues in Monza, Italy, investigated the possibility of correlation between the development of glaucoma in patients with ocular hypertension and the retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFL) and central corneal thickness of those patients. They evaluated one eye each in 106 healthy patients and 49 with ocular hypertension.
Dr. Miglior presented the study results here at the meeting of the International Society for Imaging in the Eye.
The researchers used the Carl Zeiss Meditec Stratus OCT to measure the RNFL and ultrasound pachymetry to measure central corneal thickness, Dr. Miglior said. The parameters delineated were average thickness, superior maximum, inferior maximum, superior average, inferior average and minimum-maximum, he said.
Among the healthy patients, mean central corneal thickness was 550.3 µm; in those with OH the mean central corneal thickness was 565 µm, Dr. Miglior said. The average RNFL thickness was 102.51 µm for the control group and 92.5 µm for those with ocular hypertension.
“There was no significant correlation for each OCT parameter,” he said.
The researchers observed no difference in age, mean deviation, standard deviation, central corneal thickness and average RNFL thickness in normal, healthy eyes, Dr. Miglior said.
In eyes with hypertension, the RNFL thickness was correlated with central corneal thickness. When the cornea was thinner, RNFL tended to be thinner as well, he said.
Dr. Miglior said that while RNFL appears to be an important risk factor for predicting glaucoma, more research is needed.