Role of imaging in glaucoma diagnosis and follow-up

The purpose of the review is to provide an update on the role of imaging devices in the diagnosis and follow-up of glaucoma with an emphasis on techniques for detecting glaucomatous progression and the newer spectral domain optical coherence tomography instruments. Imaging instruments provide objective quantitative measures of the optic disc and the retinal nerve fiber layer and are increasingly utilized in clinical practice. This review will summarize the recent enhancements in confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, scanning laser polarimetry, and optical coherence tomography with an emphasis on how to utilize these techniques to manage glaucoma patients and highlight the strengths and limitations of each technology. In addition, this review will briefly describe the sophisticated data analysis strategies that are now available to detect glaucomatous change overtime.