To investigate the influence of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness on visual acuity and visual field in patients with bilateral temporal optic atrophy.

Patients with characteristic features of gradual visual loss and temporal atrophy of both optic nerves were enrolled in this study. Among the patients, RNFL thickness of each area was measured with optical coherence tomography, and its influence on the best corrected visual acuity, mean deviation and pattern standard deviation calculated from the refractive test and Humphrey visual field test was analyzed.

The present study included 13 patients with bilateral temporal optic atrophy (26 eyes) and 13 normal controls (26 eyes). Optical coherence tomography was performed to calculate RNFL thickness in the 52 eyes. Among 26 eyes of patients with bilateral temporal optic atrophy, the Humphrey visual field test was performed to calculate the mean deviation and pattern standard deviation. The mean age in the patient group was 66.0 ± 12.3 years (37–80 years), and 8 (30.8%) patients were male and 18 (69.2%) female. The mean best corrected visual acuity was 30/50 (20/200–20/20). Simple regression analysis showed that a thinner temporal RNFL thickness was correlated with a lower the best corrected visual acuity ( p = 0.015). The mean deviation was low when inferotemporal RNFL was thin ( p = 0.005). Pattern standard deviation was high when inferotemporal ( p = 0.003), inferonasal ( p = 0.04) and nasal ( p = 0.008) RNFLs were thin.

Inferotemporal RNFL thickness was significantly correlated with best corrected visual acuity, mean deviation and pattern standard deviation of automated visual field test in patients with bilateral temporal optic neuropathy. Optical coherence tomography can be further used to estimate visual acuity and visual field defects in patients with optic atrophy.