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From the Institute of Ophthalmology, Catholic University, Rome, Italy.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. Eleven patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and moderate field loss
(Humphrey 30-2 [Humphrey Instruments, San Leandro, CA] mean deviation
-6 dB), eight with ocular hypertension (OHT), and eight age-matched
normal subjects were tested. Optic discs of patients and control
subjects were evaluated by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. ERGs
were recorded to long-duration stimuli (250 msec) of photopic luminance
(78 candelas [cd] /m2), presented in the macular region
(12° x 12° field size) on a steady, adapting background.
Amplitudes of the a-wave and b-wave and the PhNR were measured. Pattern
reversal ERGs to 30-minute checkerboards were also recorded from
patients and control subjects.
RESULTS. Compared with control subjects, patients with OAG showed reduced PhNR (average reduction: 62%, P < 0.01), but normal a- and b-wave amplitudes. In patients with OHT, PhNR and a- and b-wave amplitudes did not differ from control values. In individual patients with OAG, PhNR amplitudes were correlated positively with pattern ERG amplitudes (r = 0.80; P < 0.01) and central (12°) perimetric mean deviations (r = 0.68; P < 0.05) and negatively with cup-to-disc area ratios (r = -0.79; P < 0.01) and cup shape measures (r = -0.78; P < 0.01).
CONCLUSIONS. Similar to that found in monkeys with experimentally induced glaucoma, the PhNR is selectively altered in human glaucoma. The correlation between PhNR losses and clinical parameter abnormalities suggests that this component depends on inner retina integrity and may be of clinical value for detecting glaucomatous damage.
| Introduction |
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In the present study, PhNR of the cone-mediated ERG was evaluated in normal subjects and in patients with clinically defined open-angle glaucoma (OAG) or ocular hypertension (OHT). The purpose was to determine whether this component was altered in glaucoma and was correlated with the extent of glaucomatous damage assessed by standard diagnostic methods. For this purpose we compared, in the same affected eyes, the PhNR with the PERG, perimetric sensitivity, and optic disc morphology. The results showed that PhNR, unlike other ERG components, was significantly altered in glaucomatous eyes and that losses of this component were correlated with abnormalities of clinical parameters recorded from the same glaucomatous eyes.
| Methods |
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5 dB loss, or two or more adjacent points, not
contiguous with the field borders, with
10 dB loss) and glaucomatous
optic disc, evaluated by slit lamp biomicroscopy and 78-D lens, with a
cup-to-disc ratio greater than 0.6 (or an interocular cup-to-disc ratio
asymmetry
0.2) and one or more of the following disc abnormalities:
excavation, thinning of the rim, notching, nerve fiber layer defects,
or parapapillary atrophy. Field loss was graded from early to moderate
in all patients, with Humphrey 30-2 mean deviation ranging from -1.2
to -6 dB. Patients with OHT had an elevated IOP (>21 mm Hg on two
separate occasions), normal Humphrey perimetry, and normal clinical
optic disc appearance. All patients were selected by an experienced
ophthalmologist (AC) specializing in glaucoma. Eight normal subjects,
whose sex and age distribution was comparable with that of patients
(four men and four women, mean age: 48.7 ± 6.4, range: 3859),
provided normative ERG values. In Table 1
, clinical findings obtained in individual patients with OHT and
OAG are reported. In all patients, analysis of the optic disc was
performed by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (Heidelberg Retina
Tomograph, [HRT]; Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg,
Germany) according to a previously published protocol.16
Among the various morphometric parameters obtained by HRT, those most
sensitive and specific for glaucoma damage17
18
19
were
considered in the analysis: the cup-to-disc area ratio and the cup
shape measure. Cup-to-disc area ratio is the ratio of cup to disc
surface determined by means of the current HRT software algorithm (2.01
ver.). The cup shape measure is a structural index summarizing in one
number the depth variation and steepness of the cup
walls.18
Its value is typically negative in normal eyes
and less negative or positive in glaucomatous eyes.18
These measurements were compared with the 95% confidence limits
established in 18 normal eyes (18 subjects; mean age: 44 ± 6.5
years, range: 3859 years), with disc area in the ranges of 1 to 2
mm2 (n = 9; mean cup-to-disc area
ratio = 0.15, upper 95% confidence limit = 0.22; mean cup
shape measure = -0.29, upper 95% confidence limit = -0.14)
and 2 to 3 mm2 (n = 9; mean
cup-to-disc area ratio = 0.23, upper 95% confidence limit =
0.36; mean cup shape measure = -0.23, upper 95% confidence
limit = -0.06). Subjects providing normative HRT and
electroretinographic data belonged to independent groups. Cup-to-disc
area ratio was significantly altered in 2 of 8 OHT eyes and in 7 of 11
OAG eyes, whereas cup shape measure was normal in all OHT eyes and
abnormal in 2 of 11 OAG eyes. In Table 1
, in addition to the Humphrey
mean deviation derived from the 30° field, a central mean deviation
calculated from a field area of 12° x 12° is reported for each
patient. This mean deviation value was obtained by averaging the local
losses in decibels found in the total deviation plot of the Humphrey
30-2 and was used for correlation purposes with the
electroretinographic responses, elicited from the same central 12° x
12° stimulation area (see below). Informed consent was obtained from
every subject or patient after the procedures used in the study were
fully explained. The research followed the tenets of the Declaration of
Helsinki.
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ERGs were recorded by an Ag-AgCl electrode taped on the skin of the lower eyelid. A similar electrode, placed over the eyelid of the contralateral unstimulated eye, was used as reference (interocular recording).13 23 24 Responses were amplified, filtered (0.3100 Hz, -6 dB per octave), sampled at 2 kHz with a resolution of 12 bits, and averaged (300 events, three blocks of 100 events each) with automatic artifact rejection. Two recordings were obtained to verify reproducibility. Responses to onoff long-duration stimuli consisted of on and off components. Examples of typical FERG waveforms to such stimulation have been published.22 The on component consisted of an a-wave, a b-wave, and a negative potential (PhNR) after the b-wave peak and peaking at 80 to 95 msec. The off component consisted of an early and a late positive component, peaking at 35 and 50 msec after the stimulus cessation, respectively, and a negative component. The latter was more variable in amplitude and peak time than the negative on potential.10 This variability was related to a variation in the baseline after the termination of the on stimulus. Given the uncertainty of the measurement, the off response component was not further considered in the analysis. For each record, amplitude and time to peak of on components were measured. The following parameters were evaluated: a-wave amplitude, b-wave amplitude, and time to peak, and PhNR amplitude and time to peak. For each subject or patient, a noise response was also measured while the subject fixated an unmodulated field of the same mean luminance as the stimulus. Noise peak-to-peak amplitude was in all cases less than 0.15 µV, when considering a temporal window corresponding to that at which the response component was expected to peak. The signal-to-noise ratio for each component was measured by dividing the peak amplitude of that component by the noise in the corresponding temporal window. Responses were considered as recordable only if the signal-to-noise ratio was equal to or greater than 2.5. In all normal subjects and patients, each FERG amplitude component satisfied this signal-to-noise ratio criterion.
In all normal subjects and patients, a PERG was also recorded according to a previously published technique,25 with full refractive correction for the test distance (43 cm). Stimulation field size was a square subtending, the same as for the focal ERG, 12° x 12°. Checkerboards of 30 minutes of angular subtense (mean luminance: 78 cd/m2; contrast: 92%), modulated in counterphase at four reversals per second, were used as a stimuli. The amplitude of the postivenegative complex P50N95 was measured.
Statistical Analysis
Although both eyes for each subject or patient were tested, only
the results from the right eyes were included in the statistical
analyses. Results from normal subjects and patients were analyzed by
one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc Tukey honestly
significant difference (HSD) tests for multiple comparisons. Pearsons
correlation and linear correlation analysis was used to correlate
amplitudes of the various FERG components with the corresponding
clinical parameters (pattern ERG, central perimetric mean deviation,
cup-to-disc area ratio, cup shape measure) recorded in the individual
patients with OAG. In all the analyses, P < 0.05 was
considered significant.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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The cellular origin of the PhNR component has not been clearly established. However, the available evidence in cats and primates suggests that this component originates from the inner retina. In the cat,11 intraretinal recordings showed that TTX-sensitive negative potentials, with a time course similar to the PhNR of the ERG, are present in the proximal retina of area centralis, where ganglion cell density is high. In addition, these components are particularly pronounced at recording sites approaching the optic nerve head. Further evidence in cats11 also suggests a glial mediation of the TTX-sensitive PhNR of the photopic ERG. In the monkey, intravitreally injected TTX10 abolishes the PhNR selectively, leaving the other ERG components relatively unaltered. Because TTX is a voltage-gated Na+ blocker, and the retinal ganglion cells, their axons, and the amacrine and interplexiform cells are the major retinal elements that possess voltage-gated Na+ channels,26 27 these neurons would be, as suggested previously,10 those most likely responsible for PhNR generation. In humans, the spatial distribution of the focal ERG PhNR was previously investigated in our laboratory.22 In that study, the negative ERG component after the b-wave peak was identified as a PIII component and was thought to be linked to the activity of outer retina. Indeed, no experimental data were available at the time the study was conducted to support an inner retinal origin for PhNR. Of note, PhNR amplitude showed a maximum response density in the foveal region, where ganglion cell density is highest, and its distribution differed from that of the b-wave, whose response density was much less pronounced in the same foveal area.22 These results in humans, indicating that PhNR spatial distribution may follow that of retinal ganglion cells, are consistent with the experimental data in cats and lend further support to the hypothesis that the human PhNR is generated from inner retina.
In this study, unlike that in monkeys by Viswanathan et al.,10 ERGs were elicited by stimuli restricted to the macular region on a light-adapting background. A focal instead of a ganzfeld stimulation was chosen for two reasons. One reason was that the results of previous studies in normal subjects or in monkeys22 28 indicated that the PhNR is relatively more represented and less masked by the b-wave in the focal compared with the full-field cone ERGs. The other reason was that we sought to compare in glaucomatous eyes PhNR, perimetric sensitivity, and PERG recorded from comparable retinal areas in the macular region. We found that losses in PhNR amplitude observed in OAG eyes were significantly correlated with perimetric sensitivity losses. A similar, although weaker, correlation between PhNR amplitude and behaviorally determined perimetric losses has been also reported in glaucomatous monkeys.10 The present results in humans and the monkey data suggest that PhNR and perimetric losses in glaucoma share, at least in part, a common mechanism presumably related to ganglion cell dysfunction. In our patients with OAG, a significant correlation was found between PhNR and PERG P50-N95 amplitude losses. This suggests that PhNR may be directly, or indirectly, related to ganglion cell activity, because the PERG N95 is thought to reflect specifically functional integrity of these neurons (see, for example, References 29, 30). It should be noted, however, that PERG amplitude was, on average, comparatively more affected than PhNR in OHT eyes (see post hoc multiple comparisons and Table 2 ), indicating a greater vulnerability for the PERG to subclinical glaucomatous damage. PhNR losses of individual patients with OAG were also found to be correlated with the severity of optic disc cupping as expressed by two morphometric parameters, the cup-to-disc area ratio, and the cup shape measure. There is histologic and clinical evidence that disc cupping abnormalities may be an indirect sign of neural damage in glaucoma.16 17 18 31 Recent clinical studies16 17 18 indicate that early glaucomatous neural dysfunction can be accurately predicted by the value of cup shape measure, an index of depth variation and steepness of the cup walls.18 The association found in this study between PhNR and disc morphometric parameters, particularly the cup shape measure, support the hypothesis that PhNR losses may represent a specific indicator of glaucomatous damage. Clearly, further cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, in a larger sample of patients, are needed before the diagnostic accuracy and predictive value of PhNR in glaucoma can be fully established.
Compared with PERG, recording of cone ERG PhNR may present some practical advantages. PhNR recording does not require full refractive correction for the test distance, which is otherwise critical for PERG measurement. Furthermore, the response loss should be specific for glaucomatous damage also in eyes with moderate optical media opacities, which preclude recording of the PERG. Indeed, PhNR response losses in glaucomatous monkey eyes did not show a dependence on either mean luminance or modulation depth.10 Therefore, it is presumable that PhNR, unlike the PERG, may not be significantly affected in nonglaucomatous eyes with early or moderate media opacities. These technical advantages, in addition to the presumed retinal origin, further point to a potential clinical use of the PhNR as a tool in clinical detection of glaucomatous damage.
| Footnotes |
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Commercial relationships policy: N.
Corresponding author: Benedetto Falsini, Istituto di Oftalmologia, Università Cattolica S. Cuore, Lgo F. Vito 1, 00168 Rome, Italy. md0571{at}mclink.it
| References |
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