Measurement of lamina and prelaminar thicknesses of both eyes in patients with unilateral branch retinal vein occlusion.

PURPOSE: Thinning of the lamina cribrosa thickness (LCT) and prelaminar tissue thickness (PT) has been observed in patients with glaucoma, and branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) is reportedly related to glaucoma. To test the hypothesis that thinning of the LCT and PT occurs in patients with BRVO, we investigated possible correlations of the LCT and PT in BRVO-affected eyes and fellow eyes and compared these values with age-, sex-, and underlying disease-matched eyes.

METHOD: The study included 50 patients (50 eyes) with unilateral BRVO and 35 control subjects (35 eyes). The LCT and PT were measured using the enhanced depth imaging mode of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

RESULTS

The mean LCT and PT in BRVO-affected eyes (208.26 ± 33.36 and 155.70 ± 76.89 μm, respectively) were significantly thinner than those in the normal control eyes (260.41 ± 43.25 and 201.74 ± 74.97 μm, respectively) (P = 0.000 and P = 0.008, respectively). The mean LCT and PT in the fellow eyes (204.97 ± 37.57 and 147.06 ± 71.33 μm, respectively) were also statistically thinner than those in the control group (P = 0.000 and P = 0.004, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

The LCT and PT in BRVO-affected eyes and fellow eyes were thinner than those in eyes of normal control subjects. Thinning of the LCT and PT may be associated with BRVO as well as glaucoma, suggesting that the two diseases have the similar structural abnormalities in the lamina cribrosa and prelaminar tissues.