J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2020 Oct;61(10):1203-1211. 10.3341/jkos.2020.61.10.1203.

Inter-eye Comparison of Peripapillary Choroidal Thickness in Patients with Treatment-naïve Unilateral Open-angle Glaucoma

• Kim WJ
• Lee J
• Lee YB
• Shin MC
• Kim JA

• KMID: 2511252
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2020.61.10.1203

Abstract

Purpose
We investigated the relationship between optic nerve damage and peripapillary choroidal thickness in patients with treatment-naïve primary open-angle glaucoma.
Methods
Peripapillary choroidal thicknesses of 78 eyes of 39 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma were measured on 360° scans of enhanced-depth optical coherence tomography images using the inbuilt manual segmentation function. Inter-eye peripapillary choroidal thicknesses were compared and factors associated with glaucoma were analyzed.
Results
Eyes with primary open-angle glaucoma exhibited thinner peripapillary choroidal thickness (133.2 ± 52.1 vs. 144.1 ± 53.0 μm; p < 0.001), higher intraocular pressure (16.7 ± 3.9 vs. 15.4 ± 2.6 mmHg; p = 0.005), thinner corneal thickness (523.8 ± 32.5 vs. 527.6 ± 35.0 μm; p = 0.030), and thinner retinal nerve fiber layer (72.2 ± 13.7 vs. 89.3 ± 13.1 μm; p < 0.001), compared with healthy fellow eyes. On multivariate, conditional, logistic regression analysis, thinner peripapillary choroidal thickness (odds ratio [OR] 0.910, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.834-0.993; p = 0.035) and higher intraocular pressure (OR 3.368, 95% CI 1.285-8.828; p = 0.014) were significantly associated with glaucoma.
Conclusions
Thinner peripapillary choroid and higher intraocular pressure were significantly associated with glaucoma in patients with unilateral primary open-angle glaucoma, suggesting that poor perfusion around the optic nerve head may be associated with glaucoma pathogenesis.

Keyword

Open-angle glaucoma; Optic nerve head; Peripapillary choroid