Correlations Between Macula Vessel Density and Macula Thickness in Early Stage of Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma

Abstract

Background: Glaucomatous optic neuropathy is associated with both structural and vascular changes. The objective of this study was to assess the possible relationship between the vascular and structural changes in the macula region in early stage of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate correlations between superficial macula vessel density and parafoveal inner macula thickness in patients with early-stage POAG using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A). Materials and Methods: Sixty-three patients were included in a prospective, cross-sectional study who were divided into three groups: early glaucoma (EG) group (50 eyes of 29 patients with early POAG), glaucoma suspects group (36 eyes of 21 patients), and control group (25 eyes of 13 healthy individuals). The mean age of the respective groups was 65.58 ± 9.53, 56.54 ± 9.32, and 51.62 ± 4.13. All patients underwent OCT-A scanning using RTVue-100 “Оptovue” (Optovue, Inc. Fremont, California, USA). The retina map vessel density 3 × 3 mm and retina thickness map 5 × 5 mm scans were used to obtain parameters of the macula vessel density and the parafoveal inner macula thickness, respectively. Parameters analyzed were the total, superior, inferior, nasal, and temporal superficial macula vessel densities and parafoveal inner macula thicknesses. Although area under the receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated for all available parameters, Spearman rank-order correlations were used to evaluate possible correlations between the macula vessel density and the structural changes. Results: The early glaucoma group had significant reduction in both the superficial macula vessel densities and the parafoveal inner macula thicknesses compared to the control group (P 0.05). Conclusions: In early POAG, there is no statistically significant correlation between the superficial macula vessel densities and the parafoveal inner macula thicknesses using OCT-A RTVue-100. The parafoveal inner macula thicknesses are diagnostically more significant than superficial macula vessel densities.