Researchers recently found that more than a third of patients had partial posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) on peripapillary SD-OCT, which they associated with greater retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness.

The team obtained SD-OCT RNFL thickness measurements from 684 patients, 101 of whom were glaucoma suspects (55 eyes with and 46 eyes without partial PVD).

The researchers observed partial PVD in at least one eye of 253 participants (37%). Among the glaucoma suspects, they noted that average RNFL thickness was greater in eyes with partial PVD compared with unaffected subjects, with significantly greater measurements in the inferior and superior quadrants but not in the nasal and temporal quadrants. They added that the difference in average RNFL thickness remained significant even when corrected for expected age-related decline in RNFL thickness.

“Judicious clinical interpretation of this finding on SD-OCT RNFL thickness scans should be factored into the assessment of glaucoma suspects,” the study authors concluded in their paper.