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  • Scleral, laminar thickness impact glaucoma pathogenesis

    Glaucoma

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    This prospective study found differences in scleral and laminar thickness between eyes with normal tension glaucoma (NTG) and eyes with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG).

    The authors used swept-source OCT to study the posterior scleral and lamina cribosa thickness in 103 myopic patients with NTG or POAG and 43 myopic controls. They were able to measure scleral thickness in 96 patients (65.8 percent) and laminar thickness in 128 patients (87.7 percent).

    They found:

    • Subfoveal scleral and laminar thicknesses were significantly thinner in NTG patients compared to POAG patients and controls.
    • Scleral thickness was significantly negatively correlated with axial length in NTG patients but not in POAG patients.
    • Laminar thickness was thinner in NTG patients compared to POAG patients and was negatively correlated with the mean deviation of visual field.

    They propose that the difference in the scleral and laminar thicknesses may explain the different levels of IOP-mediated glaucomatous damage in POAG and NTG eyes.