Association of retinal vessel caliber and visual field defects in glaucoma
Section snippets
Methods
A search of more than 4000 charts netted 64 that satisfied the inclusion criteria for this study. Inclusion criteria consisted of a diagnosis of primary open-angle glaucoma, fundus photographs taken within one year of corresponding visual fields tests and the presence of asymmetric visual fields. Exclusion criteria included a history of diabetes, trauma, or vascular occlusive disease.
Asymmetric Goldmann visual fields were defined as having either an arcuate or nasal step scotoma of at least 20
Results
The average patient age was 65.8 years old with an age range of 31 to 87 years. The group included 26 males and 38 females. Twenty-three patients carried a diagnosis of systemic hypertension. Other common systemic diseases included thyroid abnormalities, asthma, and arthritis. Corrected visual acuity had a range from 6/5 to 6/18 with 45 eyes having visual acuity of 6/7.5 or better. The cup-to-disk ratio averaged 0.82 with a range of 0.6 to 0.95. All patients used topical therapy, alone or in
Discussion
This study demonstrates a strong association between retinal arteriole diameter and localized visual field defects in primary open angle glaucoma. We correlated visual field loss predominantly in one hemifield with peripapillary vessel narrowing in the corresponding hemisphere of the retina. We used strict criteria to select eyes with distinct hemifield visual field loss.
The ratio of the diameter of the superotemporal artery to the inferotemporal artery was used to define vessel narrowing,
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