Rates of retinal nerve fibre layer thickness change in glaucoma patients and control subjects

To examine the rates of retinal nerve fibre layer thickness (RNFLT) change in glaucoma patients and healthy, age-similar control subjects with three techniques: scanning laser polarimetry with variable corneal compensation (VCC) and enhanced corneal compensation (ECC), and time-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). Sixty-one patients and thirty-three controls were examined with each technique and with standard automated perimetry (SAP) every 6 months. Rates of global RNFLT change and SAP mean deviation (MD) change were estimated with linear mixed-effects models. The median (interquartile range) baseline age was 64.4 (58.2, 71.0) years for patients and 62.4 (56.3, 70.1) years for controls (P=0.56). There was a median of seven examinations over 3.1 years for patients and six examinations in 3.0 years for controls. Baseline visual field MD and RNFLT for all imaging modalities were significantly lower (P