Variance in the macular sublayers' volume as a diagnostic tool for primary open-angle glaucoma

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Imaging
• Glaucoma Research

Background:

• Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness.
• Early detection of glaucoma is crucial for preserving vision.
• Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a key imaging modality in glaucoma diagnosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the variability of macular sublayer volumes in glaucoma patients versus healthy controls.
• To determine if macular sublayer volume variance can serve as a biomarker for glaucoma detection.

Main Methods:

• A case-control study involving 63 primary open-angle glaucoma patients and 57 healthy controls.
• Macular volumetric scans of multiple retinal sublayers were acquired using Spectralis OCT2.
• Standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CoV) of sublayer volumes were calculated and compared between groups.

Main Results:

• Glaucomatous eyes exhibited significantly greater SD and CoV in macular sublayer volumes compared to controls (P < 0.001).
• The coefficient of variation (CoV) demonstrated high discriminative ability (AUC = 0.930) for glaucoma detection.
• CoV achieved 95% specificity with 80.75% sensitivity, identifying glaucoma cases with normal ganglion cell complex volume.

Conclusions:

• Macular sublayer volume variance, especially CoV, represents a promising biomarker for detecting glaucomatous changes.
• OCT-derived volume variance parameters offer a potential new approach for early glaucoma diagnosis.