A reduced peripapillary blood flow as a factor of primary open angle glaucoma development and progression

To assess the blood supply to the peripapillary area in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) using optical coherence tomography with the function of amplitude decorrelation angiography (OCT-A). Material and Methods. 65 eyes of POAG patients (the main group) and 22 eyes of age-matched healthy subjects (the control group) were examined. Spectral OCT (SD-OCT) technique with AngioVue OCT function was used to measure the average value of amplitude decorrelation (Peripapillary Flow Index), peripapillary vessel density, the parameters of the ganglion cell complex (GCC), including the focal loss volume (FLV) and the global loss volume (GLV), and the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). Results. We revealed that blood flow reduction in the peripapillary retina, detected by OCT-A, precedes not only the functional but also the structural loss, determined by OCT and SAP. Conclusions. The new noninvasive technique for the examination of retinal blood flow, OCT-A, determines the reduction of hemoperfusion in peripapillary retina even at an early POAG stage and can serve as an important diagnostic method for early glaucoma detection // Russian Ophthalmological Journal, 2016; 3: 34-41. doi: 10.21516/2072-0076-2016-9-3-34-41.