Optic nerve head morphology at baseline is associated with changes in capillary blood flow in diabetic patients with open angle glaucoma after four years.

Abstract

Purpose : To examine the relationship between baseline optic nerve head (ONH) parameters and changes in capillary blood flow in open angle glaucoma (OAG) patients with diabetes mellitus (DM).

Methods : 79 patients with OAG (16 with DM, 63 without DM) were assessed for capillary blood flow by Heidelberg retinal flowmetry (HRF) and for ONH parameters by Heidelberg retinal tomography 3 (HRT3) every 6 months for a 4-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, baseline rim area was positively and significantly associated with changes in the percentage of avascular area in the superior (r=0.63, p=0.0079), and inferior retina (r=0.71, p=0.0014), and baseline rim volume was positively and significantly associated with changes in the percentage of avascular area in the superior (r=0.69, p=0.0024), and inferior retina (r=0.78, p=0.0002), leading to a significant difference compared to patients without DM (rim area: superior avascular area p=0.0039, inferior avascular area p=0.0015; rim volume: superior avascular area p=0.0005, inferior avascular area p=0.0000).

Conclusions : Compared to OAG patients without DM, in OAG patients with DM baseline ONH parameters are significantly and positively associated with changes in capillary blood flow after 4 years.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.