Analysis Of Difference In Central Macular Thickness By Oct In Normal, Glaucoma Suspects And Glaucomatous Patients And Establishing Whether Asymmetry In Horizontal Macular Hemifield Thickness (MHT) Can Detect Early Glaucoma

Aim: Analysis of difference in Central Macular Thickness (CMT) by time domain Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) in normal, glaucoma suspects and glaucomatous patients and establishing whether asymmetry in horizontal macular hemifield thickness (MHT) can detect early glaucoma.

Methods: From a macular thickness map of OCT, difference of values vertically just beyond the centre (called DMT1) and the topmost-lowermost values of the macular thickness map (DMT2) were calculated for normal patients to establish a normative database. The number of glaucomatous patients and glaucoma suspects with either of the two DMT values outside 95% CI (+- 1.96 SD) was also calculated.

Results: 200 healthy eyes, 105 eyes of glaucoma suspects and 65 glaucomatous eyes (45 early(EG) and 20 moderate-severe(M-SG)) were included in the study of whom 6.5%, 33.3%, 82.2% and 70% respectively had abnormal MHT(DMT values outside 95% CI). The M-SG group had the overall lowest macular thickness which was statistically significantly lower than healthy and glaucoma suspect groups (p<0.001). The sensitivity of MHT was higher that RNFLT in EG (p<0.05).

Conclusions: CMT is lower in glaucomatous eyes. Asymmetric horizontal MHT aids in early diagnosis of glaucoma.