Macular scan OCT could be used for the diagnosis and management of glaucoma.

Dr Whitney Boling and her team, Department of Ophthalmology, Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, studied the OCT macula scans and automated visual field (VF) defects of 127 eyes of 127 glaucoma patients.

The superior inner and outer sectors and the inferior inner and outer sectors were recorded by macular scan OCT. Superior outer, superior inner, inferior inner, and inferior outer rows were used to determine VFs. OCT macular scan sectors and VF rows were compared using the Spearman correlation.

There were statistically significant structural relationships between all macular parameters and the related VF defects. The highest correlations were between the inferior outer macular thickness and the superior outer VF region, the inferior inner macular and the superior inner VF region, the superior inner macula and the inferior inner VF region, and the superior outer macular and the inferior outer VF region.

Macular scan OCT should be considered as a tool for the diagnosis and management of glaucoma, due to the predictable and significant structural relationship between macular thickness and VF defects.