Enhanced corneal compensation for scanning laser polarimetry on eyes with atypical polarisation pattern.

AIM To investigate the potential advantage of an enhanced corneal compensation algorithm (ECC) compared with variable corneal compensation (VCC) in the analysis of scanning laser polarimetric (SLP) images with atypical retardation pattern (ARP). METHODS SLP-VCC images with ARP (typical scan score (TSS) <80) of one eye of each of 27 glaucoma patients and 19 healthy subjects were compared with the corresponding SLP-ECC images obtained at the same session. RESULTS ARP was present in 10.4% of the normals and 15.5% of the glaucoma patients imaged with SLP-VCC over 9 months. In both groups TSS was higher for ECC than for VCC (p<0.001). In glaucoma TSNIT, superior and inferior average thickness values were significantly lower, and TSNIT (measuring ellipse around the optic nerve head in the four (temporal, superior, nasal, inferior) quadrants) standard deviation was significantly higher with ECC than with VCC (p<0.001). In the normal group nerve fibre indicator (NFI) was lower with ECC than with VCC (p=0.007). TSNIT average was smaller and TSNIT standard deviation was higher with ECC (p<0.001). Superior and inferior average thickness did not differ between VCC and ECC in the normal group. CONCLUSIONS The new ECC software substantially improves polarimetric image analysis on eyes showing atypical polarisation pattern.