Assessing the relationship between central corneal thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in healthy subjects

Tarkan Mumcuoglu, Kelly A Townsend, Gadi Wollstein, Hiroshi Ishikawa, Richard A Bilonick, Kyung Rim Sung, Larry Kagemann, Joel S Schuman, Advanced Imaging in Glaucoma Study Group, David Huang, Rohit Varma, Vikas Chopra, Brian Francis, Farnaz Memarzadeh, Kenneth L Lu, Ou Tan, Srinivas R Sadda, Rick Bilonick, Hiroshi Ishikawa, Robert J Noecker, Joel S Schuman, Gadi Wollstein, David S Greenfield, Carolyn D Quinn, Mitra Sehi, Tarkan Mumcuoglu, Kelly A Townsend, Gadi Wollstein, Hiroshi Ishikawa, Richard A Bilonick, Kyung Rim Sung, Larry Kagemann, Joel S Schuman, Advanced Imaging in Glaucoma Study Group, David Huang, Rohit Varma, Vikas Chopra, Brian Francis, Farnaz Memarzadeh, Kenneth L Lu, Ou Tan, Srinivas R Sadda, Rick Bilonick, Hiroshi Ishikawa, Robert J Noecker, Joel S Schuman, Gadi Wollstein, David S Greenfield, Carolyn D Quinn, Mitra Sehi

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the relationship between central corneal thickness (CCT) and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness obtained by scanning laser polarimetry (GDx-VCC; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, California, USA), confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (HRT II; Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany), and optical coherence tomography (Stratus OCT; Carl Zeiss Meditec).

Design: Multicenter clinical trial, retrospective cross-sectional study.

Methods: One hundred and nine healthy subjects from the Advanced Imaging in Glaucoma Study were enrolled in this study. All subjects had a standard clinical examination, including visual field (VF) and good-quality scans from all three imaging devices. CCT was measured using an ultrasonic pachymeter. A linear mixed-effects model was used to assess the relationship between RNFL thickness and CCT, accounting for clustering of eyes within subjects, testing site, ethnicity, family history of glaucoma, axial length intraocular pressure, and VF global indices.

Results: For OCT and GDx, there was a slight nonstatistically significant positive relationship between CCT and RNFL thickness. For HRT, there was a slight nonstatistically significant negative relationship between CCT and RNFL thickness. Relationships for each device were found to differ between sites.

Conclusions: CCT was not statistically significantly related to RNFL thickness in healthy eyes.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00286637.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Histogram of central corneal thickness of eyes in all healthy subjects.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatter plots of central corneal thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFL) as measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT),Heidelberg retina tomography (HRT) and nerve fiber analyzer (GDx-VCC) for each study center. A green line joins points for the two eyes of each subject. Red line is the spline fit for the data, taking into account the correlation between the two eyes.

Source: PubMed

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