Abstract
Purpose :
To examine the relationship between changes in retrobulbar blood flow velocities and changes in optic nerve head (ONH) structure in open-angle glaucoma (OAG) patients with and without diabetes mellitus (DM)
Methods :
79 patients with OAG (13 with DM, 66 without DM) were assessed for peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV), and resistivity index (RI) in the ophthalmic artery (OA), central retinal artery (CRA) and temporal posterior ciliary artery (TPCA) by color Doppler imaging and for ONH morphology and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness by Heidelberg retinal tomography 3 every six months for a four-year period. Pearson correlations were used to test for associations between measurements, with p<0.05 considered statistically significant.
Results :
In OAG patients with DM, changes in OA RI were positively correlated with changes in height variation contour (r=0.70, p=0.009). Changes in CRA RI were negatively correlated with changes in linear cup/disc ratio (r=-0.64, p=0.016). TPCA PSV and EDV negatively correlated with changes in mean RNFL thickness (PSV: r=-0.71, p=0.006, EDV: r=-0.64, p=0.017) and RNFL cross-sectional area (PSV: r=-0.72, p=0.004; EDV: r=-0.67, p=0.010). Additionally, TPCA EDV correlated positively with changes in cup area (r=0.63, p=0.018), and cup/disc area ratio (r=0.56, p=0.046), and negatively with rim area (r=-0.62, p=0.022), and rim volume (r=-0.66, p=0.012). In OAG patients without DM, these correlations were weak and non-significant (r=-0.11 to 0.12, all p>0.05); leading to a significant difference compared to patients without DM (p<0.05).
Conclusions :
These results suggest that vascular factors may play a more prominent role in the structural progression of OAG in patients with DM, compared to those without DM.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.