Lower macular pigment optical density in chronic open-angle glaucoma

View PDF 

There is growing evidence to indicate that the macula is affected even in early glaucoma and this can be demonstrated by macular visual field testing and optical coherence tomography (OCT). The macular pigment optical density (MPOD) in an individual’s eye can be determined using customised heterochromatic flicker photometry (cHFP), measured using the macular metrics densitometer. The author recently investigated the relationship between MPOD and glaucoma and showed that individuals with open-angle glaucoma have reduced MPOD, an exciting new finding (40 glaucoma patients vs 54 age-matched normal controls). Median (interquartile range) MPOD for glaucoma was 0.23 (0.42) compared to 0.36 (0.44) for controls and the difference was statistically significant, (z=-2.158, p=0.031).