Czech and Slovak Ophthalmology 345 10.31348/2024/43 Original article The Relationship Between Retinal Nerve Fiber Thickness and Retinal Functional Sensitivity During Oct and Static Perimeter Examinations Veselý Petr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2195-6349 Beneš Pavel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9430-0383 Sokolová Šidlová Jana https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3841-6541 Záděrová Petra https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3076-615X Došková Hana https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1792-9284 14 10 2024 2 5

Aims: To demonstrate the relationship of dependency between the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer and the functional sensitivity of the retina in healthy young individuals. We also secondarily investigated the relationship between refractive error and mean retinal thickness in the macula. Material and methods: The basic cohort contained 30 subjects with an average age of 23.4 ±4.2 years. These were young, generally healthy individuals without serious ocular pathologies. The average value of spherical equivalent in both eyes of all individuals was -1.2 ±2.5 D. We measured the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in the papilla area and the average thickness of the retina in the area of the macula using the device OPKO Spectral OCT SLO Combination Imaging System (Opko Health, USA). We performed a functional examination of the retina within an area up to 30° using a perimeter with a stimulus with a Frequency Doubling Technology (FDT) from the company Humphrey (Carl Ziess Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA). As a significant variable for comparison, we determined the mean value of retinal sensitivity deviation (MD). Results: In our study, we did not demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between the average thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and the average value of retinal functional sensitivity (r = 0.18, p = 0.34) in either right eyes or the left eyes of the examined subjects (r = 0.20, p = 0.29). We also did not find a statistically significant relationship secondarily between the variable called the spherical equivalent of refractive error (SE) and the average retinal thickness in the macula in either the right eyes (r = 0.34, p = 0.06) or the left eyes (r = 0.18, p = 0.32). Conclusion: When comparing the average thickness of the nerve fibers in the papilla with the help of OCT examination and the functional sensitivity of the retina measured on an FDT perimeter, we did not find a statistically significant dependence in the group of right eyes or in the group of left eyes. We also achieved a similar result when examining the interdependence of the variables of spherical equivalent of refractive error of the eye and the average thickness of the retina in the macula.

 RNFL OCT FDT perimeter SE macula papilla References Harwerth RS, Vilupuru AS, Nalini V. Rangaswamy, Earl L. Smith; The Relationship between Nerve Fiber Layer and Perimetry Measurements. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2007;48(2):763-773. Bowd C, Weinreb RN, Williams JM, Zangwill LM. The retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in ocular hypertensive, normal, and glaucomatous eyes with optical coherence tomography. Arch Ophthalmol. 2000;118(1):22-26. Sommer A, Katz J, Quigley HA. Clinically detectable nerve fiber atrophy precedes the onset of glaucomatous field loss. Arch Ophthalmol. 1991;109(1):77-83. Wollstein G, Schuman JS, Price LL. Optical coherence tomography longitudinal valuation of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in glaucoma. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005;123(2):464-470. Harwerth RS, Carter-Dawson L, Shen F, Smith EL 3rd, Crawford ML. Ganglion cell losses underlying visual field defects from experimental glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1999;40(7):2242-2250. Wheat JL, Rangaswamy NV, Harwerth RS. Correlating RNFL thickness by OCT with perimetric sensitivity in glaucoma patients. J Glaucoma. 2012 Feb;21(2):95-101. Noval S, Contreras I, Rebolleda G, Muñoz-Negrete FJ. Optical coherence tomography versus automated perimetry for follow-up of optic neuritis. Acta Ophthalmol Scand. 2006 Dec;84(6):790-794. Nilforushan N, Nassiri N, Moghimi S, et al. K. Structure-function relationships between spectral-domain OCT and standard achromatic perimetry. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012 May 9;53(6):2740- 2748. Zhao M, Wu Q, Hu P, Jia L. Macular Thickness Assessed with Optical Coherence Tomography in Young Chinese Myopic Patients. J Ophthalmol. 2015;2015(4):715-798. Ooto S, Hangai M, Sakamoto A. Three-dimensional profile of macular retinal thickness in normal Japanese eyes. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 2010;51(1):465-473. Turk A, Ceylan OM, Arici C. Evaluation of the nerve fiber layer and macula in the eyes of healthy children using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. American Journal of Ophthalmology. 2012;153(3):552-559. Yasmeen N, Fatima N, Qamar-Ul-Islam. Comparison of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in patients having pseudo exfoliation syndrome with healthy adults. Pak J Med Sci. 2016 Nov- Dec;32(6):1533-1536. Giammaria S, Hutchison DM, Rafuse PE, et al. Rates of Visual Field Change in Patients with Glaucoma and Healthy Individuals: Findings From a Median 25-Year Follow-up. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2022 May 1;140(5):504-511. Leung CK, Yim Lui Cheung C, Weinreb RN, et al. Evaluation of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Progression in Glaucoma: A Study on Optical Coherence Tomography Guided Progression Analysis. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2010;51(1):217-222. Holló G. Relationship between optical coherence tomography sector peripapillary angioflow-density and Octopus visual field cluster mean defect values. PLoS ONE. 2017;12(2):171-184. Salman AG, Hamid MA, Mansour DE. Correlation of visual field defects and optical coherence tomography finding in migraine patients. Saudi J Ophthalmol. 2015;29(1):76-80. Sato S, Hirooka K, Baba T, Yano I, Shiraga F. Correlation between retinal nerve fibre layer thickness and retinal sensitivity. Acta Ophthalmol. 2008;86(6):609-613. Ocansey S, Abu EK, Owusu-Ansah A, et al. Normative Values of Retinal Nerve Fibre Layer Thickness and Optic Nerve Head Parameters and Their Association with Visual Function in an African Population. J Ophthalmol. 2020;20(4):715-773. Viladés E, Pérez-Del Palomar A, Cegoñino J, et al. Physiological changes in retinal layers thicknesses measured with swept source optical coherence tomography. PLoS One. 2020;15(10):240-251.