OCT Angiography in the Glaucoma Diagnosis

Glaucoma is a chronic degenerative disease of the optic nerve. It is the second cause of blindness worldwide and a frequent cause of irreversible blindness. In 2020, epidemic health authorities have predicted about 80 million glaucoma patients. Glaucoma can be treated by topical treatment (eye drops), laser or surgery. A premature diagnosis of glaucoma is very important to prevent irreversible blindness. Pachymetry, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and visual fields exams are fundamental for the development of the glaucoma diagnosis. The severity of glaucoma is defined with Hodapp-Parrish-Andersen visual field criteria. According to these criteria, glaucoma can be classified as early (with average visual field deviation, MD, of 0 to -6 dB), moderate (MD of -6 to -12 dB) and severe (MD worse than -12 dB). The progression of glaucoma is being identified by the visual fields tests, and also by the progression of alterations in the optic nerve head. The visual fields tests are long and difficult (30 minutes). It is therefore important to create additional tests and anticipate the diagnosis, in order to avoid the irreversibility of glaucoma.