How OCT for Glaucoma is Revolutionizing Early Detection and Treatment

This article originally appeared on theacefitness.com

The leading cause of preventable blindness around the world, glaucoma, has been greatly deterred by the advent of new technologies. One such development is optical coherence tomography (OCT), which is now in use at a number of the top eye hospitals around the world.

Using this technology, doctors can obtain high-resolution, cross-sectional images of the eye’s internal structures. They can then use these images to better understand the nature and workings of this eye disease, making OCT for glaucoma detection a highly in-demand procedure.

Early Detection Through Precise Imaging

Glaucoma, frequently termed the “silent thief of sight,” asserts a slow and stealthy mode of deterioration, threatening the vision of those who suffer from it. With glaucoma, the diagnosis often comes after the eye has already had significant damage. This happens because traditional detection methods simply aren’t good enough.

Detecting minute alterations is what permits OCT to be the powerful tool that it is for the early identification of glaucoma. Elongation of the nerve fiber is the first change, but it may take years to develop into actual thinning. To see this with any clarity demands the kind of resolution provided only by OCT.

Enhanced Monitoring and Personalized Treatment

OCT has revolutionized the management of glaucoma by allowing for the clear and measurable oversight of disease advancement. With the use of multiple scans, doctors can now see and measure the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and the thickness of the ganglion cell complex (GCC) to gain a more intricate understanding of glaucoma. This is vital, as the aim of all glaucoma treatments is to stop the progression of this degenerative disease.

In addition, it is up to the ophthalmologists to make sure the treatments are suited to the patients. For example, if the results from the OCT for glaucoma scans show that the patient has a thinning RNFL, one of the key indicators for the disease, the ophthalmologist might decide to increase the amount or pressure-lowering medication the patient is already taking, recommend laser treatment to the optic nerve, or perform surgery on the drainage system of the eye.

OCT in Different Types of Glaucoma

While it has become virtually routine to use optical coherence tomography (OCT) to evaluate the status of the optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layer in patients suspected of having primary open-angle glaucoma, the use of this newer technology to analyze different types of glaucoma is also becoming more common and more clinically useful. Both narrow-angle and normal-tension glaucoma can be effectively studied using OCT.

Using OCT for Glaucoma Detection and Treatment

To conclude, the early detection and management of glaucoma have been transformed by OCT, which provides a level of detail that previously was not available. Many new insights have been gained through its use.

We can now see much more clearly the structural changes that glaucoma causes, to the point that we can often see the changes in visual function that are used to define when a patient is at risk for this progressive disease.