Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the prevalence of non-intraocular pressure (IOP)-related characteristics in a cohort of individuals with ocular hypertension (OHT) and primary open-angle glaucoma patients (POAG) at risk of optic nerve degeneration (OND).
Methods :
A multicenter, analytical, observational, cross-sectional study was performed using a representative sample of 412 volunteers of both sexes recruited from 8 hospitals (Spain and Portugal). Participants were classified as OHT subjects (n=198) and POAG patients at initial stage (n=214). Data from the clinical history, anamnesis, and ophthalmological examination (intraocular pressure -IOP-, central corneal thickness -CCT-, optical coherence tomography -OCT- and visual field -VF-) were recorded to define the study groups. Also, sociodemographics, anthropometric, endocrinologic, nutritional, toxic habits, psychotropic drugs, cardiovascular and respiratory variables were studied. Statistics were carried out by the SPSS 25.0 program.
Results :
Mean age of the study population was 62 years. Gender distribution was 53% men and 47% women in the POAG group, and 39% men and 61% women in the OHT group. In the POAG group, IOP was 16 mmHg in the right eye and 18 mmHg, meanwhile in the OHT group was 20 mmHg in the RE and LE. Among the 14 potential risk factors for OND (age, gender, thyroid dysfunction, body mass index, coffee or tea consumption, smoking or drinking habits, psychotropic drugs, cold hands/feet síndrome, migraine, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - COPD, and sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome - SAHS) stood out in both groups for its prevalence the coffee habit (2/3 of the population, 64% POAG, 65% OHT), overweight (1/2 of the study volunteers, 34% POAG, 44% OHT) and psychotropic drug intake (1/3 of the participants, 36% POAG, 37% OHT), whereas the less frequent comorbidities were asthma (12% POAG, 9% OHT), COPD (5% POAG, 16% OHT) and SAHS (11% POAG, 13% OHT).
Conclusions :
In this Spanish-Portuguese cohort, new non-IOP-related factors have been identified to help assess the risk of POAG and to prevent or delay OND and glaucoma blindness.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.