SIGNIFICANCE: Optical coherence tomography speckle is used here in an unconventional way as the indirect source of information on tissue microstructure. The study reveals that the corneal speckle of glaucoma suspects has a similar relationship between the parameters of scattering exhibited in glaucoma patients. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of optical coherence tomography imaging of the cornea in early diagnosis of glaucoma. METHODS: Corneas of 64 subjects of three groups, including 18 primary open-angle glaucoma patients, 24 glaucoma suspects with normal levels of IOP and uncompromised visual field, and 22 age-matched controls, were imaged with spectral optical coherence tomography. A central region of interest in each optical coherence tomography image visualizing the stroma was automatically extracted, and the intensity data within that region were fit with the generalized gamma distribution. Its parameters describe the scatterer cross section and scatterer density and indirectly assess corneal microstructure. In addition, subjects underwent measurements of IOP, visual field, Heidelberg Retinal Tomography, retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, and biometry. Group means of all parameters were tested for equality. Within each group of subjects, correlation was evaluated between the statistical parameters of the corneal speckle. RESULTS: Glaucoma suspects had statistically significantly different IOP, visual field parameters, mean retinal fiber layer thickness, and central corneal thickness from those of glaucoma patients but not from those of the control group. The parameters of the corneal speckle were not significantly different between the groups, but they showed a markedly higher and statistically significant coefficient of determination for glaucoma patients and suspects than that for the control group (0.927 and 0.707 vs. 0.336). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that glaucoma suspects have similar relationship between the corneal scatterer cross section and scatterer density to that exhibited in the glaucoma patients but markedly different from that of healthy controls.
SIGNIFICANCE: Optical coherence tomography speckle is used here in an unconventional way as the indirect source of information on tissue microstructure. The study reveals that the corneal speckle of glaucoma suspects has a similar relationship between the parameters of scattering exhibited in glaucomapatients. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of optical coherence tomography imaging of the cornea in early diagnosis of glaucoma. METHODS: Corneas of 64 subjects of three groups, including 18 primary open-angle glaucomapatients, 24 glaucoma suspects with normal levels of IOP and uncompromised visual field, and 22 age-matched controls, were imaged with spectral optical coherence tomography. A central region of interest in each optical coherence tomography image visualizing the stroma was automatically extracted, and the intensity data within that region were fit with the generalized gamma distribution. Its parameters describe the scatterer cross section and scatterer density and indirectly assess corneal microstructure. In addition, subjects underwent measurements of IOP, visual field, Heidelberg Retinal Tomography, retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, and biometry. Group means of all parameters were tested for equality. Within each group of subjects, correlation was evaluated between the statistical parameters of the corneal speckle. RESULTS:Glaucoma suspects had statistically significantly different IOP, visual field parameters, mean retinal fiber layer thickness, and central corneal thickness from those of glaucomapatients but not from those of the control group. The parameters of the corneal speckle were not significantly different between the groups, but they showed a markedly higher and statistically significant coefficient of determination for glaucomapatients and suspects than that for the control group (0.927 and 0.707 vs. 0.336). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that glaucoma suspects have similar relationship between the corneal scatterer cross section and scatterer density to that exhibited in the glaucomapatients but markedly different from that of healthy controls.
Authors: Alejandra Consejo; David Alonso-Caneiro; Maciej Wojtkowski; Stephen J Vincent Journal: Ophthalmic Physiol Opt Date: 2020-07-23 Impact factor: 3.117
Authors: Marcela Niemczyk; Monika E Danielewska; Malgorzata A Kostyszak; Daniel Lewandowski; D Robert Iskander Journal: PLoS One Date: 2021-03-26 Impact factor: 3.240
Authors: Vania B Silva; Danilo Andrade De Jesus; Stefan Klein; Theo van Walsum; João Cardoso; Luisa Sánchez Brea; Pedro G Vaz Journal: J Biomed Opt Date: 2022-03 Impact factor: 3.758