Optical coherence tomography meaurement of nerve fiber layer thickne and the likelihood of a viual field defect

PURPOE: To determine if optical coherence tomography (OCT) meaurement of nerve fiber layer (NFL) thickne can be ued to predict the preence of viual field defect (VFD) aociated with glaucoma. DEIGN: Quota-ampled, cro-ectional tudy. METHOD: Retropective tudy of OCT NFL thickne meaurement in 276 eye of 276 ubject. All peron received OCT NFL thickne analyi; 136 eye underwent frequency-doubling technology (FDT) perimetry; and 140 eye underwent wedih interactive threhold algorithm (ITA) perimetry. We defined a parameter called NFL50, which i the NFL thickne value at which there wa a 50% likelihood of a VFD with either ITA or FDT perimetry. We evaluated the ue of NFL50. REULT: The mean NFL thickne with (n = 68) and without (n = 68) a VFD in the FDT group wa 93.2 μm ± 22.6 and 108.4 μm ± 14.1, repectively. The mean NFL thickne with (n = 70) and without (n = 70) a VFD in the ITA group wa 78.9 μm ± 24.8 and 103.0 μm ± 18.0, repectively. The FDT mean NFL50 value wa 98.5 μm. The ITA mean NFL50 value wa 87.0 μm. The area under the receiver operator characteritic (AROC) curve for mean NFL wa 0.73, and the poitive predictive value (PPV) for FDT mean NFL50 wa 72.2%. For ITA mean NFL, the AROC wa 0.79 and the PPV for NFL50 wa 77.2%. CONCLUION: Nerve fiber layer thickne analyi uing OCT may be clinically ueful in identifying ubject who have viual field lo. However, the PPV ugget that OCT may need higher reolution and better reproducibility to enhance it enitivity and pecificity for population creening.