Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2025, 169(2):140-143 | DOI: 10.5507/bp.2024.001

Peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer following vessel density correction at different IOP values

Jan Lestak, Martin Fus, Sarka Pitrova
Department of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Kladno 2, Czech Republic

Purpose. The aim of this study was to define the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in the peripapillary region of the retina after adjusting for the effect of vessel density (VD) in patients with pathological intraocular pressure (IOP).

Patients and Methods: 69 patients (122 eyes) with IOP >21 mmHg (range 21-36 mmHg, mean 23.65±2.70 mmHg). 32 were men (average age 55±13 years) and 37 were women (average age 52±14 years). IOP was measured using the Ocular Response Analyser (ORA). VD and RNFL were measured peripapillary by OCT (Avanti RTVue XR) in eight segments: Inferior Temporal - IT (1); Temporal Inferior - TI (2); Temporal Superior - TS (3); Superior Temporal - ST (4); Superior Nasal - SN (5); Nasal Superior - NS (6); Nasal Inferior - NI (7) and Inferior Nasal - IN (8). The VD value was subtracted from the total RNFL value.

Results: A corrected value for the RNFLc nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLc) was introduced to account for VD across the RNFL volume in each segment. Person's correlation coefficient (r) was used to assess the correlation between IOP and RNFLc. The strongest correlations in RNFLc were in segments 5 (r=-0.32, P=0.002) and 8 (r=-0.21, P=0.037).

Conclusion: The greatest changes in RNFLc (RNFL minus VD) were in eyes with pathological IOP in segments 5 and 8, the location of the retinal ganglion cell magnocellular fibers. That is, when the thickness of the nerve fiber layer was reduced by correcting for vessel density, there was a significant correlation in segments 5 (r =-0.32, P<0.05) and 8 (r =-0.21, P<0.05) with intraocular pressure. The results suggest use of a corrected RNFL from VD value as more appropriate for detecting early changes in glaucoma.

Keywords: glaucoma, intraocular pressure, optical coherence tomography with angiography, vessel density, ocular hypertension, retinal nerve fiber layer, retinal ganglion magnocellular layer

Received: October 5, 2023; Revised: January 12, 2024; Accepted: January 12, 2024; Prepublished online: January 17, 2024; Published: June 1, 2025  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Lestak, J., Fus, M., & Pitrova, S. (2025). Peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer following vessel density correction at different IOP values. Biomedical papers, 169(2), 140-143. doi: 10.5507/bp.2024.001
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. . Quigley HA. 21st century glaucoma care. Eye (Lond) 2019;33:254-60. doi: 10.1038/s41433-018-0227-8. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    2. . Lestak J, Fus M. Neuroprotection in glaucoma - a review of electrophysiologist. Exp Ther Med 2020;19:2401-05. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    3. . Morgan JE, Uchida H, Caprioli J. Retinal ganglion cell death in experimental glaucoma. Br J Ophthalmol 2000;84:303-10. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    4. . Naskar R, Wissing M, Thanos S. Detection of Early Neuron Degeneration and Accompanying Microglial Responses in the Retina of a Rat Model of Glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2002;43:2962-8.
    5. . Shou T, Liu J, Wang W, Zhou Y, Zhao K. Differential dendritic shrinkage of alpha and beta retinal ganglion cells in cats with chronic glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2003;44:3005-10. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    6. . Mukai R, Park DH, Okunuki Y, Hasegawa E, Klokman G, Kim CB, Krishnan A, Gregory-Ksander M, Husain D, Miller JW, Connor KM. Mouse model of ocular hypertension with retinal ganglion cell degeneration. PLoS One 2019;14(1):e0208713. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208713 Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    7. . Weber AJ, Kaufman PL, Hubbard WC. Morphology of single ganglion cells in the glaucomatous primate retina. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1998;39:2304-20.
    8. . Soto I, Oglesby E, Buckingham BP, et al. Retinal Ganglion Cells Downregulate Gene Expression and Lose Their Axons within the Optic Nerve Head in a Mouse Glaucoma Model J Neurosci 2008;28:548-61. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    9. . Quigley HA, Dunkelberger GR, Green WR. Chronic human glaucoma causing selectively greater loss of large optic nerve fibers. Ophthalmology 1988;95:357-63. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    10. . Lestak J, Fus M, Kral J. Axons of retinal ganglion cells on the optic nerve target at different values of intraocular pressure. Clin Ophthalmol 2022;16:3673-9. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    11. . Lestak J, Fus M, Kral J. Axons of retinal ganglion cells on the optic nerve disc following vessel density correction at diferent IOP values. Exp Ther Med 2023;25(6):261. doi: 10.3892/etm.2023.11960 Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    12. . Kral J, Lestak J, Nutterova E. OCT angiography, RNFL and visual field at different values of intraocular pressure. Biomed Rep 2022;16:36. doi: 10.3892/br.2022.1519 Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    13. . Hood DC, Fortune B, Arthur SN, Xing D, Salant JA, Ritch R, Liebmann JM. Blood vessel contributions to retinal nerve fiber layer thickness profiles measured with optical coherence tomography. J Glaucoma 2008;17:519-28. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    14. . Patel N, Luo X, Wheat JL, Harwerth RS. Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Assessment: Area versus Thickness Measurements from Elliptical Scans Centered on the Optic Nerve. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2011;52:2477-89. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    15. . Allegrini D, Montesano G, Fogagnolo P, Pece A, Riva R, Romano MR, Rossetti L. The volume of peripapillary vessels within the retinal nerve fibre layer: an optical coherence tomography angiography study of normal subjects. Br J Ophthalmol 2018;102(5):611-21. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2017-310214 Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    16. . Pereira I, Weber S, Holzer S, Resch H, Kiss B, Fischer G, Vass C. Correlation between retinal vessel density profile and circumpapillary RNFL thickness measured with Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography. Br J Ophthalmol 2014;98(4):538-43. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2013-303910 Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    17. . Curcio CA, Allen KA. Topography of ganglion cells in human retina. J Comp Neurol 199;300:5-25.
    18. . Rodieck RW, Binmoeller KF, Dineen J. Parasol and midget ganglion cells of the human retina. J Comp Neurol 1985;233:115-32. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    19. . Drenhaus U, Gunten A, Rager G. Classes of axons and their distribution in the optic nerve of the tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri). Anat Rec 1997;249:103-16. Go to original source...
    20. . Skalicky SE. Ocular and Visual Physiology Clinical application. Springer Singapore; 2015. Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content