Evaluation of Variability in Macular Thickness in Primary Open Angle Glaucoma: A Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography-Based Study

Globally, glaucoma, especially primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), is one of the leading causes of blindness. This disease is connected to damage of the optic nerve head, death of retinal ganglion cells and visual field abnormalities. Objectives: To check the macular thickness and total macular volume using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) among patients of POAG and subjects without glaucoma. Methods: The observational case-control study, where 40 participants had POAG and 40 participants the same age did not. Only the right eye or only the left eye from each subject was examined in the study. All subjects had a thorough check of their eyes which included history, eye chart testing, slit-lamp examination, dilated fundus inspection, gonioscopy and measuring intraocular pressure (IOP). Visual fields were assessed using the Humphrey Field Analyzer. Macular thickness (MT) was analyzed with SD-OCT using OCT Spectralis. Parameters evaluated were macular inner thickness (MIT), macular outer thickness (MOT), macular central thickness (MCT) and macular total volume (MTV). Results: Patients with POAG exhibited markedly reduced MTV, MIT and MOT in comparison to healthy controls, with the greatest decline observed in the temporal as well as the inferior quadrants. These observations confirm that structural differences in the macular parameters are correlated with glaucoma and can aid in early diagnosis and monitoring progression. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the diagnostic utility of SD-OCT in determining macular thickness variability in individuals with POAG. Our findings show that macular thickness is much lower in glaucomatous eyes than in healthy controls, with distinct patterns of regional thinning indicating retinal ganglion cell vulnerability.