PhD,5

Purpose: To study the associations between optic nerve head (ONH) strains under intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation with retinal sensitivity in patients with glaucoma.Design: Clinic-based cross-sectional study.Participants: Two hundred twenty-nine patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (subdivided into 115 patients with high-tension glaucoma [HTG] and 114 patients with normal-tension glaucoma [NTG]).Methods: For 1 eye of each patient, we imaged the ONH using spectral-domain OCT under the following conditions: (1) primary gaze and (2) primary gaze with acute IOP elevation (to approximately 35 mmHg) achieved through ophthalmodynamometry. A 3-dimensional strain-mapping algorithm was applied to quantify IOP-induced ONH tissue strain (i.e., deformation) in each ONH. Strains in the prelaminar tissue (PLT), the retina, the choroid, the sclera, and the lamina cribrosa (LC) were associated (using linear regression) with measures of retinal sensitivity from the 24-2 Humphrey visual field test (Carl Zeiss Meditec). This was performed globally, then locally according to a previously published regionalization scheme.Main Outcome Measures: Associations between ONH strains and values of retinal sensitivity from visual field testing.Results: For patients with HTG, we found (1) significant negative linear associations between ONH strains and retinal sensitivity (P < 0.001; on average, a 1% increase in ONH strains corresponded to a decrease in retinal sensitivity of 1.1 decibels [dB]), (2) that high-strain regions colocalized with anatomically mapped regions of high visual field loss, and (3) that the strongest negative associations were observed in the superior region and in the PLT. In contrast, for patients with NTG, no significant associations between strains and retinal sensitivity were observed except in the superotemporal region of the LC.Conclusions: We found significant negative associations between IOP-induced ONH strains and retinal sensitivity in a relatively large glaucoma cohort. Specifically, patients with HTG who experienced higher ONH strains were more likely to exhibit lower retinal sensitivities. Interestingly, this trend in general was less pro-nounced in patients with NTG, which could suggest a distinct pathophysiologic relationship between the two glaucoma subtypes. Ophthalmology 2023;130:99-110 (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Academy of Ophthalmology

Automated summary

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between optic nerve head strains under intraocular pressure elevation and retinal sensitivity in glaucoma patients. A clinic-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 229 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma, divided into high-tension glaucoma (HTG) and normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) groups. The results showed significant negative associations between optic nerve head strains and retinal sensitivity in patients with HTG, while no significant associations were observed in patients with NTG except in certain regions of the lamina cribrosa.