Combining vascular and nerve fiber layer thickness measurements to model glaucomatous focal visual field loss

• Main Authors: Kallab, Martin, Hommer, Nikolaus, Schlatter, Andreas, Chua, Jacqueline, Tan, Bingyao, Schmidl, Doreen, Hirn, Cornelia, Findl, Oliver, Schmetterer, Leopold, Garhöfer, Gerhard, Wong, Damon
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Bioengineering; Glaucoma; Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/161832
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We compare the focal structure-function correlation of structural measurements of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFL-T) using optical coherence tomography (OCT), capillary density (CD) measurements using OCT-angiography (OCT-A), or a combination of both, with visual field deviation (VFD) in early to advanced glaucoma. Primary open angle glaucoma patients (n = 46, mean ± SD age: 67 ± 10 years; VF mean deviation: -10.41 ± 6.76 dB) were included in this cross-sectional study. We performed 30-2 standard automated perimetry OCT (3.5-mm diameter ring scan) and 15°×15° OCT-A (superficial vascular complex slab). Based on a nerve fiber trajectory model, each VF test spot was assigned to an OCT-A wedge and an OCT ring-sector. Two univariate linear models (Mv and Mt ) using either CD-based vascular (Mv ) or RNFL-T-based thickness information (Mt ) and one multivariate model using both (Mv:t ) were compared in their associations with measured focal VFD, which were higher for the multivariate model Mv:t (mean ± SD correlation coefficient: 0.710 ± 0.086) than for either nested model (0.627 ± 0.078 for Mv and 0.578 ± 0.095 for Mt ). Using a focal visual field approach, the combination of RNFL-T and CD showed better structure-function correlations than thickness or vascular information only.