Comparison of Structural Defects between Optic Disc and Ganglion Cell Complex in Patients with Glaucoma

Purpose: To evaluate the agreement of glaucomatous structural defects of the ganglion cell complex (GCC) detected with the spectral domain optical coherence tomography (sdOCT) with the optic nerve head alterations detected with the Heidelberg retina tomography (HRT), of glaucoma patients with ocular hypertension or open angle glaucoma.

Material and Methods: Ninety patients eyes with structural glaucomatous defects were enrolled. All of them underwent imaging examination of GCC with sdOCT and the optic disk with HRT. The Cohen's kappa coefficient of agreement was used.

Results: The agreement between the optic disc and GCC using the parameters of the programs analysis of the HRT, the moorfields regression analysis (MRA) and glaucoma probability score (GPS) was not significant. Instead between MRA and GPS a good agreement was calculated. Significant agreements were found between MRA and GPS on one hand and GCC on the other, considering location and length of the glaucomatous damage, while non significant agreements were found between GPS and GCC for the location and the length of the glaucomatous structural defect.

Conclusions: There is no significance (Please explain further if you are referring to significance in terms of the difference, similarity or agreement) between HRT and sdOCT for the detection of the glaucomatous damage between the optic nerve head and the ganglion cell complex. Instead MRA and GCC detect comparable areas and lengths of the glaucomatous damage. On the other hand GPS records larger deficits relative to MRA and has not a significant agreement with the study of GCC.