Macular Area Perfusion in Normal and Glaucomatous Eyes Using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

Background: The most common cause of blindness worldwide is glaucoma, a condition that progresses over time and has the potential to permanently impair eyesight. The only glaucoma-related anomaly for which therapy stops the disease from progressing is an increase in intraocular pressure (IOP).
Objective: The aim of the current work was to elucidate the differences of perfusion in macular area between normal and glaucomatous eyes, and determine the correlation between the macular area vessel density (VD) and glaucoma severity using optical Coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).  
Patients and Methods: This Cross sectional prospective analytic study included 20 participants with 20 glaucomatous eyes and 20 normal eyes, attending at Outpatient Clinics, Department of Ophthalmology, Suez Canal University Hospital, Ismailia, Egypt. Cases were scheduled for OCTA examination.
Results The changes macular vessel density (MVD) had strongly positive correlation with ganglion cell layer (GCL) thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, had negative correlation with the severity of glaucoma, which meant the more severe the glaucoma was, the lower MVD was. Compared to traditional glaucoma staging system judged by visual field )VF(, the changes MVD obtained by OCTA might be a new method to grade the stage of glaucoma. These findings theorize that the changes of MVD may be better facilitated for the observation and monitoring of glaucoma progression.
Conclusion: It could be concluded that macular vessel density (MVD) has strongly positive correlation with ganglion cell layer (GCL) thickness and RNFL thickness, has negative correlation with the severity of glaucoma, which mean that the more severe the glaucoma is, the lower (MVD), (RNFL) and (GCL) are.