Diagnosis of Early-Stage Glaucoma by Grid-Wise Macular Inner Retinal Layer Thickness Measurement and Effect of Compensation of Disc-Fovea Inclination.

PURPOSE To evaluate grid-wise analyses of macular inner retinal layer thicknesses and effect of compensation of disc-fovea inclination for diagnosing early-stage glaucoma. METHODS Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography measurements over a 6.0 × 6.0-mm macular area were prospectively obtained in 104 eyes of 104 patients with early-stage glaucoma with a mean deviation of -1.8 ± 1.9 dB and 104 eyes of 104 age- and refraction-matched normal subjects. Macular retinal nerve fiber layer (mRNFL), ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) combined, and ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness of the entire area and each subdivided macular grid were determined to compare diagnostic capability for glaucoma using receiver operating characteristic curves and various normal cutoff values for each layer thickness and number of grids flagged as abnormal. Diagnostic capability was then compared with that of circumpapillary RNFL (cpRNFL) measurements. Effects of compensation of inclination of disc-fovea line by reconfiguration of the macular grid were also studied. RESULTS Macular inner retinal layer analyses using 8 × 8 grids generally yielded higher diagnostic capability. Only the 8 × 8 grid GCC analyses using the various normal cutoff values yielded a sensitivity ≥ 0.90 with specificity ≥ 0.95 under several conditions in discriminating the glaucoma eyes. In glaucoma and normal eyes with both reliable cpRNFL and macular measurements, the best sensitivity/specificity were 0.98/0.95 for the 8 × 8 grid-mRNFL analysis and 0.93/0.96 for the 8 × 8 grid GCC analysis using various normal cutoff values, which were better than that (0.78/0.95) for clock-hour cpRNFL analysis (P = 0.001). Compensation of the disc-fovea inclination did not improve the diagnostic capability. CONCLUSIONS Grid-wise analysis of macular GCC--especially using 8 × 8 grids and normative data-based cutoff values--was very useful for diagnosing early-stage glaucoma, though compensation of the disc-fovea inclination had little effect.