You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Clinical science
Optic nerve head morphology in glaucoma patients of African descent is strongly correlated to retinal blood flow
  1. Priyanka Kanakamedala1,
  2. Alon Harris1,
  3. Brent Siesky1,
  4. Ariel Tyring1,
  5. Michael Muchnik1,
  6. George Eckert2,
  7. Leslie Abrams Tobe1
  1. 1Department of Ophthalmology, Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
  2. 2Department of Biostatistics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
  1. Correspondence to Professor Alon Harris, Department of Ophthalmology, Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, 1160 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; alharris{at}indiana.edu

Abstract

Background/Aims To examine the relationship between change in optic nerve head (ONH) morphology and retinal blood flow in patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) of African (AD) and European descent (ED) over 3 years.

Methods 112 patients with OAG (29 AD; 83 ED) underwent assessment of ONH morphology using Heidelberg retinal tomography (HRT-III), and retinal blood flow using confocal scanning laser Doppler. Repeated-measures analysis of covariance was used to compare baseline and 3-year measurements, and Pearson correlations were calculated to evaluate the relationships.

Results In OAG patients of AD, change in superior mean retinal blood flow was strongly, negatively correlated with change in cup/disc (C/D) area ratio (r=−0.78, p=0.020) and cup area (r=−0.75, p=0.0283) and strongly, positively correlated with change in rim area (r=0.74, p=0.0328) over 3 years. In OAG patients of AD, change in inferior mean retinal blood flow was strongly, negatively correlated with changes in C/D area ratio (r=−0.88, p=0.0156) and linear C/D ratio (r=−0.86, p=0.0265) over 3 years. In OAG patients of ED, these correlations were weak and did not reach statistical significance.

Discussion OAG patients of AD may have a stronger vascular component to their glaucoma pathophysiology than patients of ED.

  • Glaucoma
  • Retina
  • Optic Nerve

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2013-304393

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text