LASER SCANNING TOMOGRAPHY AND STEREOPHOTOGRAMMETRY IN 3-DIMENSIONAL OPTIC DISC ANALYSIS

Laser scanning tomography (LST) and computed stereophotogrammetry (CSP) are sophisticated diagnostic tools for the three-dimensional analysis of optic nerve head topography. The two methods are based on different physical principles. To compare the information about the shape of the cup of an optic nerve head obtained by LST and CSP, we evaluated the volume profile (VP; i.e., the cross-sectional area of the cup from top to bottom) in 36 discs of 36 patients (20 control group discs C, 16 glaucoma discs G). The Spearman correlation coefficient between the photogrammetric and the laser scanning VP-slope measurements was r(s) = 0.931; P < 0.001 (r(s) = 0.935 G, P < 0.001; r(s) = 0.910 C, P < 0.001). The results suggest that confocal laser scanning provides readings of the shape of the optic disc cup that are similar to the measurements of computed stereophotogrammetry.