Comparison of different spectral domain optical coherence tomography scanning areas for glaucoma diagnosis

Purpose: To evaluate retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), optic nerve head (ONH), and macular thickness measurements for glaucoma detection using the RTVue spectral domain optical coherence tomograph.

Design: Diagnostic, case-control study.

Participants: One hundred forty eyes of 106 glaucoma patients and 74 eyes of 40 healthy subjects from the Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study (DIGS).

Methods: All patients underwent ocular imaging with the commercially available RTVue. Optic nerve head, RNFL thickness, and macular thickness scans were obtained during the same visit. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and sensitivities at fixed specificities (80% and 95%) were calculated for each parameter.

Main outcome measures: Areas under the ROC curves (AUC) and sensitivities at fixed specificities of 80% and 95%.

Results: The AUC for the RNFL parameter with best performance, inferior quadrant thickness, was significantly higher than that of the best-performing ONH parameter, inferior rim area (0.884 vs 0.812, respectively; P = 0.04). There was no difference between ROC curve areas of the best RNFL thickness parameters and the best inner macular thickness measurement, ganglion cell complex root mean square (ROC curve area = 0.870).

Conclusions: The RTVue RNFL and inner retinal macular thickness measurements had good ability to detect eyes with glaucomatous visual field loss and performed significantly better than ONH parameters.