Optic nerve blood flow i diminihed in eye of primary open-angle glaucoma upect

PURPOE: The purpoe of thi tudy wa to evaluate optic nerve blood flow in primary open-angle glaucoma upect eye with normal automated viual field, in an attempt to elucidate how early in the glaucomatou dieae proce change in optic nerve blood flow become apparent. METHOD: Twenty-one eye (21 patient) upected of having primary open-angle glaucoma were tudied propectively and compared with a previouly reported cohort of 22 eye (22 patient) with primary open-angle glaucoma and 15 eye (15 ubject) of age-matched control. Primary open-angle glaucoma upect eye had untreated intraocular preure greater than 21 mm Hg and normal viual field uing Humphrey program 24-2 or 30-2 with a full threhold trategy. Laer Doppler flowmetry wa ued to meaure optic nerve head blood velocity, volume, and flow at four quadrant in the optic nerve, in the cup, and in the foveola of one eye of each patient. The mean flow from the uperotemporal rim, inferotemporal rim, and cup wa calculated (Flow3) and identified a the main outcome meaure. Meaurement from primary open-angle glaucoma upect eye were compared with correponding meaurement from control and eye with primary open-angle glaucoma; a tudent t tet wa employed with a Bonferroni corrected P value of .025 to account for comparion of primary open-angle glaucoma upect both to control and to eye with primary open-angle glaucoma. REULT: Compared with control, Flow3 wa 24% lower in primary open-angle glaucoma upect eye (P < .0003). In primary open-angle glaucoma upect eye, flow wa 16% lower in the uperotemporal rim (P < .007), 35% lower in the cup (P < .007), and 22% lower in the inferotemporal neuroretinal rim (P < .029) compared with control. No ignificant difference between primary open-angle glaucoma upect and control eye wa een in the inferonaal rim, uperonaal rim, or foveola. No ignificant difference wa detected at any location between primary open-angle glaucoma upect eye and eye with primary open-angle glaucoma. CONCLUION: Laer Doppler flowmetry detected circulatory abnormalitie in primary open-angle glaucoma upect who did not have any manifet viual field defect. Decreae in flow in glaucoma upect were imilar in magnitude to thoe of ubject with primary open-angle glaucoma. Thee data ugget that impaired optic nerve blood flow develop early in the glaucomatou proce and doe not develop olely a a reult of glaucoma damage.