VENOUS OCULAR BLOOD FLOW IN NORMAL TENSION AND HIGH TENSION GLAUCOMA

Abstract

Purpose: to study the eye's venous blood flow and the correlation between clinical data and ocular blood flow in normal tension and high tension open angle glaucoma (POAG).
Methods: Color Doppler imaging of arterial and venous blood flow was performed on 78 patients with normal tension glaucoma (NTG), 80 patients with high-pressure glaucoma (HPG) and 60 control subjects. The statistical analysis included the calculation o the correlation between clinical data and ocular blood flow parameters, as well as Pearson's correlation coefficient. The threshold P value for statistical significance was 0.05.
Results: Ocular blood flow (both arterial and venous) was significantly reduced in NTG and HTG, compared to the control group. While the arterial blood flow reduction was more significant in HTG than in NTG, a decrease in venous blood flow had a higher incidence in NTG. In contrast to the control group, POAG patients showed a correlation between clinical data and venous blood flow. The correlation was higher in NTG patients.
Conclusions: The results obtained indicate the potential importance of venous blood flow in glaucoma pathogenesis, especially in NTG.