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Relationship between central corneal thickness and changes of optic nerve head topography and blood flow after intraocular pressure reduction in open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension.

Lesk MR, Hafez AS, Descovich D

Department of Ophthalmology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec. lesk@videotron.ca

OBJECTIVES: To investigate changes in optic nerve head topography and blood flow after therapeutic intraocular pressure reduction and to correlate them with central corneal thickness. METHODS: Sixteen patients with open-angle glaucoma and 16 patients with ocular hypertension underwent Heidelberg retina tomography and scanning laser Doppler flowmetry in 1 eye before and at least 2 months after a mean 35% sustained therapeutic reduction in intraocular pressure. Patients were assigned to a thin or thick group based on their median central corneal thickness. RESULTS: Compared with 16 patients with thick corneas (mean +/- SD central corneal thickness, 587 +/- 31 microm), the 16 patients with thin corneas (518 +/- 32 microm) had greater reductions in mean (36 +/- 32 vs 4 +/- 36 microm, P = .003) and in maximum cup depth (73 +/- 107 vs 4 +/- 89 microm, P = .02). These changes were not statistically significantly different between the patients with open-angle glaucoma and those with ocular hypertension. Smaller mean +/- SD improvements in neuroretinal rim blood flow were seen in patients with thinner corneas compared with those with thicker corneas (35 +/- 80 vs 110 +/- 111 arbitrary units, P = .04). CONCLUSION: Patients with open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension with thinner corneas show significantly greater shallowing of the cup, a surrogate marker for lamina cribrosa displacement (compliance), and smaller improvements of neuroretinal rim blood flow after intraocular pressure reduction.

Published 14 November 2006 in Arch Ophthalmol, 124(11): 1568-72.
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