The usefulness of the optical coherence tomographer in the diagnosis of anterior inflammatory optic neuropathy

Abstract

A cross-sectional descriptive prospective study in 19 patients (20 eyes) who presented a diagnosis of anterior inflammatory optic neuropathy and attended the Neuro-Ophthalmology Services of the Ramon Pando Ferrer Cuban Institute of Ophthalmology, from May to October 2007, was carried out. The aim of the study was to assess the usefulness of the optical coherence tomography in the diagnosis of this condition. There was a prevalence of the group of patients between 35 and 54 years of age (31.6%) and most of the patients were women (57%). There were not significant differences in the edema between each of the optic disc sectors. An average thickness of the retinal nerve fibers in the upper sector prevailed (246.70 microns). Therefore, there were significant differences between the superior-inferior and temporal-nasal sectors. The depression of the visual field ranged from moderate to severe. There was no correlation between the thicknesses of the retinal nerve fibers and the visual acuity of the patients. The data from the medical histories were gathered in a database made with the statistics pack Microsoft Excel. The statistical analysis was carried out with the program SPSS version 11.

Keywords

• enfermedades del nervio óptico/diagnóstico
• interpretación estadística de datos
• evaluación de resultados de intervenciones terapéuticas