Spectralis, Cirrus OCT able to detect retinal nerve fiber layer defects in eyes with preperimetric, early glaucoma

In a study that compared the diagnostic abilities of Spectralis (Heidelberg Engineering) and Cirrus (Zeiss) spectral domain–optical coherence tomography (OCT) for the detection of defects in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) of patients with preperimetric glaucoma (PPG) and early glaucoma (EG), both were found to be useful in a clinical setting.

Both devices’ deviation maps demonstrated good diagnostic abilities, except for the IPL layer with Spectralis.

This cross-sectional study included 47 healthy eyes, 43 eyes with PPG, and 54 eyes with EG. All participants had Spectralis and Cirrus OCT imaging performed on the same day.

Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs), sensitivities, and specificities were analyzed for each deviation layer to classify healthy eyes from PPG and EG eyes.

High diagnostic performance in identifying PPG and EG eyes from healthy eyes was demonstrated in RNFL, ganglion cell layer, and retinal layers of Spectralis OCT and the RNFL and macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer of Cirrus OCT.

The largest AUC (0.840 and 0.959 for PPG and EG, respectively) was demonstrated in the RNFL layer of Cirrus OCT but there were no statistical differences from RNFL and retinal layers of Spectralis OCT.

The smallest AUC (0.563 and 0.799 for PPG and EG, respectively) was demonstrated in the inner plexiform layer of Spectralis OCT.

Reference
Choe S, Jang M, Kim YK, et al. Clinical usefulness of layer-by-layer deviation maps of Spectralis OCT: comparison with Cirrus OCT. Br J Ophthalmol. 2022;doi: 10.1136/bjo-2022-321054. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36002236.