Lamina cribrosa defects in eyes with glaucomatous disc haemorrhage.

PURPOSE

To investigate the frequency of focal abnormalities of the lamina cribrosa (LC) in eyes with glaucomatous disc haemorrhage (DH) using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT).

METHODS

We analysed 72 glaucomatous eyes with DH (72 subjects) detected by masked grading of stereophotographs along with 63 glaucomatous eyes without DH (63 subjects) consecutively recruited from the cohort of DH Study from Seoul National University Hospital. All of the subjects underwent stereoscopic optic disc photography and in vivo SS-OCT LC imaging based on a customized optic disc scanning protocol (Topcon, Inc., Tokyo, Japan). Two masked graders evaluated each eye's serial en face images for focal LC defects. En face image/optic disc photograph overlay images were evaluated to determine the relationship between the respective focal LC defect and DH locations.

RESULTS

Among the eyes with DH, the proportion with ≥1 LC defect was 80.6% (58 of 72 eyes), significantly higher than that for eyes without DH (39.7%, 25 of 63 eyes; p < 0.001). In the 58 eyes with DH and ≥1 LC defect, the location of the focal LC defect corresponded with that of the RNFL defect in 47 eyes (81.0%), and the location of the focal LC defect corresponded with the DH in 36 eyes (62.1%).

CONCLUSIONS

Focal LC defects are more frequently visible in eyes with glaucomatous DH than in eyes without DH. DH and LC defects, moreover, are often spatially correlated. These findings suggest that DH is associated with focal abnormalities of the LC.