Detecting Established Glaucoma Using OCT Alone: Utilizing an OCT Reading Center in a Real-World Clinical Setting.

Purpose

We evaluated the ability of an optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based reading center for glaucoma (ORG) to detect established glaucoma using OCT alone.

Methods

This study included eyes from 70 consecutive patients with established glaucoma (i.e. moderate or severe glaucoma according to the International Classification of Diseases [ICD]-10 guidelines) and 20 consecutive healthy subjects, who had no evidence of glaucomatous optic neuropathy (GON) or visual field (VF) loss in either eye. Using a standardized ORG quality assessment, 33 eyes were excluded due to media opacity (12), poor image quality (13), or epiretinal membrane (8). Of the remaining 147 eyes, 86 had established glaucoma and 36 were from healthy controls (total n = 122). Based on the OCT report alone and applying a previously described evaluation method, the presence of GON in each eye was determined by two masked ORG graders. The main outcome measures were sensitivity and specificity for detection of eyes with established glaucoma.

Results

Of the 86 eyes with established glaucoma (average mean deviation [MD] = -10.9 ± 7.7 dB, range = -0.5 to -31.5 dB), only one eye (MD = -0.46) was missed (sensitivity = 98.8%). However, the other eye of this patient was correctly classified as GON. Therefore, at a patient level, sensitivity was 100%. None of the 36 healthy eyes was classified as GON by the ORG (specificity = 100%).

Conclusions

An OCT-based reading center is able to identify eyes with established glaucoma using OCT alone with high sensitivity and specificity.

Translational relevance: Our study validates the use of a systematic OCT-based approach for glaucoma detection in a real-world setting.