TIPRA – Three-Dimensional Integrated Progression Analyser: A New World Programme Exploring the Structure-Function Correlation in Glaucoma Using a Holistic 3-Dimensional Approach

Abstract

Glaucoma is a chronic, progressive eye disease that causes irreversible damage to the optic nerve head. Visual field loss, the functional change seen in glaucoma correlates well with structural loss in the neurosensory part of the eye involving the retinal ganglion cell layer (GCL) and retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL). Early assessment and prevention of disease progression safeguard against visual field loss. Structural loss is evaluated via progressive stereoscopic optic disc photography and optical coherence tomography (OCT), which measures the GCL and RNFL thickness. Meanwhile, defects in visual fields indicate a functional loss. Ophthalmologists most correlate both the structural and functional data to interpret a patient’s likelihood of glaucomatous damage and progression. In this chapter, we have elucidated means to correlate structural loss with functional loss in glaucoma patients from a neophyte’s perspective and highlighted the finer nuances of these parameters in detail. This understanding of various terminologies related to structural and functional vision loss, along with the correlative interpretation of the structural and functional tests in a glaucoma patient, form the fulcrum of this chapter.