Premium
The effect of systemic blood pressure on optical coherence tomography angiography in glaucoma patients with optic disc hemorrhage
Author(s) -
Won Bae Hyoung,
Keum Park Chan,
Yeop Lee Sang,
Je Seong Gong,
Yun Kim Chan
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2019.5125
Subject(s) - medicine , glaucoma , ophthalmology , visual field , intraocular pressure , optical coherence tomography angiography , blood pressure , optical coherence tomography , angiography , ganglion , diastole , anatomy
Purpose The association between retinal microvascular structure and glaucoma has been revealed in multiple studies using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Recently, the vessel density (VD) of the macular area has been studied for various applications such as diagnosis, assessment, and estimation of visual function in glaucoma. In this study, we tried to identity the factors that affected macular VD (mVD) in glaucomatous eyes. Methods Optical coherence tomography and OCTA images were collected in a retrospective, cross‐sectional observational study. Glaucomatous eyes were further divided into two groups according to history of disc hemorrhage (DH). Association between mVD and demographic characteristics, ganglion cell‐inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thickness, visual field mean deviation (MD) and systemic blood pressure was analyzed in each group. Results Ninety‐two eyes from 58 healthy subjects and 179 eyes from 103 patients with glaucoma were included. In both healthy and glaucomatous eyes, mVD was inversely associated with the age of the eyes ( β = −0.035, p = 0.025; β = −0.039, p = 0.018). In the glaucomatous eyes, mVD was significantly decreased as the MD value was worse ( β = 0.109, p = 0.002). In the glaucomatous eyes with DH, the mVD decreased as the blood pressure increased ( β = −0.080, p = 0.002; β = −0.104, p = 0.007; β = −0.105, p = 0.003, for systolic BP, diastolic BP and mean arterial pressure, respectively) but the other factors were not significantly associated with mVD. Conclusions Reduced mVD is more common in older individuals in both healthy and glaucomatous eyes. mVD also correlates with the severity of MD value in glaucomatous eyes. In glaucomatous eyes with DH, high systemic BP is associated with a reduction in mVD. This may indicate that patients with glaucoma are more susceptible to vascular damage secondary to hypertension.