Abstract
Purpose :
To examine the changes in retinal capillary blood flow in open angle glaucoma (OAG) patients of African (AD) and European descent (ED) over 3, 4, and 5 years.
Methods :
OAG patients of AD and ED were assessed every 6 months for 3 years (18 AD, 58 ED), 4 years (20 AD, 59 ED), and 5 years (7 AD, 23 ED) for retinal capillary blood flow using Heidelberg retinal flowmetry (HRF). Mixed-model ANCOVA was used to test for statistically significant changes at 3, 4, and 5-year follow-up, and to test the differences between groups.
Results :
In OAG patients of AD, the percentage of avascular area in the inferior retina significantly increased by 3.30% at 3 years (95% CI=1.30%, 5.00%; p<0.00), 4.20% at 4 years (1.90%, 6.20%; p<0.00), and 4.20% at 5 years (1.30%, 6.60%, p<0.01). In OAG patients of ED, the percentage of avascular area in the inferior retina increased by 0.10% at 3 years (-1.30%, 1.40%; p=0.86), 1.30% at 4 years (-0.50%, 3.00%; p=0.14), and 0.80% at 5 years (-1.20%, 2.70%; p=0.41). These changes in ED patients were smaller and insignificant, leading to significant differences between groups (p=0.01 at 3 years; p=0.03 at 4 years; p=0.04 at 5 years). The percentage of avascular area in the superior retina did not differ significantly between groups.
Conclusions :
In OAG patients of AD, retinal capillary blood flow significantly decreases more over time compared to OAG patients of ED.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.