Abstract
Purpose: :
Previous studies showed an association between oral statin therapy and a protective effect only on the prevalence of Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG). The objective of this study is to determine the protective effect on the severity of POAG depending on the duration of oral statin use.
Methods: :
A retrospective study of 287 patients, classified by race, gender and age, with an established diagnosis of POAG was conducted; their POAG was stratified by severity of glaucomatous nerve damage and visual loss by GDX SLP/OCT Imaging, HVF Perimetry, and CD Ratios. The duration of statin use was classified into Short (1-5 yrs), Medium (6-10 yrs) and Long (11+ yrs).
Results: :
176 African Americans and 110 Caucasian patients were analyzed and classified as Normal (N), Early (E), Intermediate (I) and Severe (S) for each test independently. Using independently intrinsic normative database (Imaging) CD Ratios 0-1 decimal values, & HVF mean deviation (MD) values, patients were classified into Normal-Early (NE) & Intermediate-Severe (IS) group. For HVF, both African American & Caucasian Statin and Non Statin pooled data showed significantly less prevalence of severe glaucoma parameters ( P = 0.04). For GDX/OCT exam, the pooled data has P=0.21; the percent of Caucasian statin patients with severe glaucoma dropped from 65% to 49%. For CDR p=0.39 was determined for the pooled data. Less severe glaucoma parameters were measured for GDX and HVF exams in Caucasian patients compared to their African American counterparts (P = 0.033, P = 0.0059).
Conclusions: :
This study showed that for patients on oral statins, Caucasian patients have less prevalence of I&S severity level and higher prevalence of N&E level than African American patients, and that the duration of statin use affected Caucasian statin patients more positively (25% vs. 33%) than the African American patients.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: treatment/prevention assessment/controlled clinical trials • neuroprotection • intraocular pressure