What causes retinal nerve fiber layer thinning?

What causes retinal nerve fiber layer thinning?

What causes retinal nerve fiber layer thinning?

RNFL thinning is seen on OCT in both glaucoma and nonglaucomatous optic neuropathies and central nervous system diseases. These diseases include ischemic optic neuropathy, optic neuritis, hereditary optic neuropathy, traumatic optic neuropathy, MS, and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

What causes nerve fiber layer defects?

Localized RNFLDs can be caused by various ocular disorders such as glaucoma, optic disc drusen, and toxoplasmic retinochoroidal scars or caused by systemic diseases such as arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus as shown in the present study.

What is the function of the nerve Fibre layer?

The nerve fiber layer maintains a certain degree of retinotopy as it traverses the retina and then turns 90° posteriorly through the optic disk into the optic nerve.

What is retinal nerve fiber layer defect?

Retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) abnormalities, manifesting as thinning or defects, are frequently encountered in subjects with diabetes. 3–5. Thinning of the RNFL around the optic disc and macula thinning have been reported, and these changes often occur before the development of DR.

Is retinal thinning glaucoma?

Previous histology studies have shown that thinning of the macula, due to selective loss of retinal ganglion cells, occurs in glaucoma. Research has found that imaging the retinal thickness loss in the macula is a sensitive measure for detecting early glaucoma.

How do I check my RNFL defect?

To determine whether diffuse retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) defects, identified on red-free fundus photographs, could be identified on optical coherence tomography (OCT) en face structural images and to evaluate which factors are related to the different recognition patterns on en face images.

Can RNFL thickness increase?

Choi et al. and Leung et al. 17 reported a slight but statistically insignificant increase in the thickness of the temporal peripapillary RNFL in myopia. In our study, we found that the thickness of the temporal peripapillary RNFL increased with myopia and with an increase in the axial length.

Is retinal thinning progressive?

Conclusion: Our finding of FTD outer retina thinning persists and longitudinally correlates with disease progression. These findings were especially seen in probable tauopathy patients, which showed progressive outer retina thinning.

What does RNFL thinning mean?

RNFL thinning reflects the axonal loss within the optic nerve from injuries within the retina, the optic nerve, the optic chiasm, or the optic tracts. The RNFL is highly reflective on OCT images and can be automatically segmented and measured accurately by computer algorithms.

Is Thinning of the optic nerve normal?

Optic atrophy is not a disease, but rather a sign of a potentially more serious condition. Optic atrophy results from damage to the optic nerve from many different kinds of pathologies. The condition can cause problems with vision, including blindness.

What is a normal average RNFL thickness?

Results. Average (±SD) RNFL thickness for normal subjects was found to be 102.37 ± 7.45 (range, 82–119 microns) compared with 90.74 ± 14.50 found for glaucoma subjects. Females had higher average RNFL values (104.84 ± 6.90) compared with males (99.80 ± 7.18).