Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine whether normal tension glaucoma (NTG) is associated with the metabolic syndrome and to evaluate which components of the metabolic syndrome are related to NTG.
Methods: :
This study included 18,244 Korean adults aged 40 years or older who underwent health checkups including fundus photography and intraocular pressure measurement between January 2010 and December 2010. For the diagnosis of NTG, all participants with findings suspicious of glaucoma completed a comprehensive glaucoma evaluation, including applanation tonometry, gonioscopy, stereoscopic disc photography, retinal nerve fiber layer photography, and standard automated perimetry. National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III guideline was used to characterize the metabolic syndrome.
Results: :
Of the 18,244 participants, 3636 (19.9%) had metabolic syndrome, 300 (1.6%) were diagnosed with NTG. The presence of metabolic syndrome showed no association with NTG, which had borderline significance by logistic regression analysis (OR, 1.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98-1.67; p = 0.0667). Of the individual components of metabolic syndrome, hypertension and impaired glucose intolerance were found to be significantly associated with NTG (OR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.20-1.94; p = 0.0005, and OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.12-1.94; p = 0.0063). Individuals with both of these conditions showed augmented association with NTG (OR, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.54-3.80; p = 0.0001). NTG was positively associated with the number of metabolic syndrome components being present (OR, 1.10; 95% 95% CI, 1.01-1.21, p = 0.0398). None of the other components was significantly associated with incident of NTG.
Conclusions: :
Of these metabolic syndrome components, high blood pressure and impaired glucose tolerance contributed the increased risk of NTG. These findings suggest that components of metabolic syndrome may play an important role in the pathogenesis of NTG.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: risk factor assessment • diabetes • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence