Morphological changes in Schlemm's canal in treated and newly diagnosed untreated glaucomatous eyes.

A custom built 1310 nm center wavelength swept source optical coherence tomography instrument was used to measure morphological changes in treated and newly diagnosed untreated glaucomatous human Schlemm's canal (SC). Thirty-seven primary open-angle glaucoma patients were divided into two groups depending on the patients having been treated or not. The statistical results showed that there were significant differences between the treated and untreated groups' SC areas (treated, 7935.6875±680.003 μm(2); untreated, 3890.71875±871.49844 μm(2); P<0.001), the circumferences (treated, 580.37891±44.96529 μm; untreated, 381.9026±41.22123 μm; P<0.001), and the long diameters (treated, 272.87806±25.7254 μm; untreated, 185.24047±19.72786 μm; P<0.001). We hypothesize that, after drug treatment, the SC will expand and the morphometric values especially the areas will become larger, thus helping to reduce intraocular pressure.