Evaluation of patients with pseudoexfoliation syndrome with heidelberg retinal tomography

Objective: To evaluate the optic disk and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in patients with Pseudoexfoliation Syndrome (PES) with Heidelberg Retinal Tomography (HRT) and its comparison with normal control group. Materials and Methods: 40 patients were included in this retrospective study. Group 1 was formed by 20 patients who had pseudoexfoliation in their anterior chamber but no other eye disease and Group 2 was formed by 20 persons who had not any eye disease. Mean age was 66.5 +/- 9.20 (52-78) for Group 1 and 65 +/- 5.93 (50-74) for Group 2. Mean intraocular pressure was 16.9 +/- 2.1 mmHg (1220) for Group 1 and 15.0 +/- 1.9 mmHg (13-20) for Group 2. There was no difference in age, gender and intraocular pressure (p=0.433; p=0.621; p=0.771). Optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layer measurements were taken with HRT3 for all cases and compared. Results: There was no difference between two groups in parameters; disc area, cup area, rim area, cup-disc ratio, rim volume, mean cup depth, maximum cup depth, cup shape measure. Parameters; Cup volume, height variation contour, mean RNFL thickness, RNFL cross sectional area were significantly worse in Group 1 and they work to the advantage of glaucoma. Conclusion: With using HRT device we found that glaucomatous changes are began in patients with PES. Because of that we believe that patients with PES have to be follow up closely, medical or surgical intraocular pressure reducing treatments may be a good alternative even they do not have glaucoma diagnosis and have normal intraocular pressure.