In glaucoma, degeneration occurs in the retinal ganglion cells, whose cell bodies reside in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), leading to a decrease in the RNFL thickness. In clinical practice, optical coherence tomography (OCT) is used to measure the RNFL thickness for glaucoma diagnosis. Recent studies have shown that the degenerative process induces changes in optical properties of the RNFL, such as reflectivity. Because such properties can also be determined with OCT, we quantify this reduced scattering effect by determining spectroscopic attenuation coefficient (AC) in the RNFL with our proprietary autoConfoal algorithm, from two OCT B-scans of glaucomatous eyes.
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