Importance of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer, Ganglion cell complex and visual field severity indices in primary open angle glaucoma

Mahmoud Ali, Sara Salah Eldin; Salah El-din Mohamed Saro, Adham

doi:10.21608/smj.2023.246235.1426

Importance of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer, Ganglion cell complex and visual field severity indices in primary open angle glaucoma

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

¹ ophthalmology department-faculty of medicine-sohag university-egypt

² Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of medicine, Sohag University, Sohag Governorate

10.21608/smj.2023.246235.1426

Abstract

Glaucoma defined as a progressive damage of the optic nerve with functional visual field defects. That is defined as a progressive affection of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and their axons (RNFL).

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an important technology used to detect the structur-al alteration, which has the advantage of both high-resolution cross-sectional images of retina in vivo. So, we can detect:

Retinal nerve fiber layer in peripapillary area and retinal thickness in this area is compared with normal populations, Optic nerve head: which has the advantage that it is assessed objectively and Ganglion cell complex (GCC) analysis which measure the retinal thickness at the macula that has the advantage of early-stage glaucomatous damage detection.

Defects in visual field can be evaluated using standard automated perimetry (SAP): we can evaluate VF severity indices and VF defects either early defects as small paracentral depressions, nasal steps, temporal wedge or more advanced VFDs as arcuate defects, ring scotoma or even end stage characterized by a tunnel vision.

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