Ronald Zambrano, the advanced Ophthalmic Imaging Lab supervisor at NYU Langone, revealed groundbreaking results at this year’s ARVO meeting on predicting structural glaucoma progression through the pressure challenge on the lamina cribrosa, a collagenous meshwork that axons from the retina pass through. By increasing the intraocular pressure while imaging the lamina cribrosa with swept source OCT prototype, the study aimed to determine whether changes in the lamina cribrosa from the acute pressure challenge could be associated with glaucoma progression later on. The study followed 17 glaucoma and glaucoma suspects for an average of 4 1/2 years, using linear regression analysis to find that the eyes with the most changes in the lamina cribrosa during the pressure challenge also had the most structural thinning in the ganglion cell layer and the GCIPL. This discovery marks the first time an association has been found between changes in the lamina and changes in the retina, potentially serving as a biomarker for predicting future glaucoma progression and guiding treatment.
