Structure and function in glaucoma: The relationship between a functional visual field map and an anatomic retinal map

PURPOSE. To examine the relationship between an anatomic map relating the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) distribution to the optic nerve head and a functional map derived from the interpoint correlation of raw sensitivities in visual field (VF) testing. METHODS. Previously, interpoint correlations were generated for all possible pairs of VF test points in a dataset of 98,821 Humphrey VF test results taken from the Moorfields Eye Hospital archive. The relationship between these correlations and the physical distance between the VF test point pairs was evaluated by Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. The distance between the pairs of VF test points was calculated in two ways. First, the anatomic map was used to estimate the angular distance at the optic nerve head (ONH), between the RNFL bundles corresponding to the VF test points in each pair (ONHd). Second, the retinal distance between pairs of test points was calculated from the Humphrey VF template (RETd). A best-fit model for predicting functional correlation (FC) from ONHd and RETd was constructed and used to formulate a filter incorporating the anatomic-functional correlation data. RESULTS. All scatterplots showed a negative association between interpoint retinal sensitivity correlation values and distance between points: ONHd (R-2 = 0.60) and RETd (R-2=0.33). The raw sensitivity correlation values could be predicted from a multiple regression model using ONHd, RETd, and a combined interaction of ONHd and RETd (R-2=0.75, P < 0.00001). The construction of a new filter was based on the equation FC=0.9325-(0.0029 center dot ONHd) - (0.0077 center dot RETd) + (0.0001 center dot ONHd center dot RETd). CONCLUSIONS. A good level of association was observed between the strength of correlation between points in the VF and the relative location of those test points in the peripheral retina and in corresponding RNFL bundles at the ONH. These results help to validate the relationship between structure and function and may be of use in the further refinement of physiologically derived VF filters to reduce measurement noise.