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Electrophysiological assessment of visual pathways in glaucoma
V Parisi1, C Pernini, C Guinetti
1Eye Clinic, University of Roma Tor Vergata, Italy.
Purpose:
To assess nerve conduction in visual pathways in patients with open-angle glaucoma.
Methods:
Pattern-electroretinograms (PERG) and visual-evoked potentials (VEP) were simultaneously recorded in 16 patients with open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and 15 age-matched controls. The visual stimuli were checker-board patterns (the check edges subtend 15'; the contrast was 70% and reversed at the rate of 2 reversals/s).
Results:
POAG patients showed significantly higher PERG and VEP latencies (ANOVA: P < 0.01) and significantly lower amplitudes than controls; the retinocortical time (RCT: difference between VEP P100 latency and PERG P50 latency) was longer (P < 0.01) in POAG than controls and the longer RCT was correlated with the reduced PERG amplitude (r:0.798, P < 0.01).
Conclusions:
This suggests that POAG patients have an involvement of the innermost retinal layers and impaired nerve conduction in their visual pathways.