Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), retinal vein occlusions (RVO) and central corneal thickness (CCT): What is the relationship?

Purpose. - To investigate the relationship between various types of glaucoma, retinal vein occlusion (RVO), and central corneal thickness (CCT) Methods. - We followed 48 known glaucoma patients who developed any type of retinal vein occlusion. Mean follow-up was 4.2 years. At all visits, patients had a detailed ocular history, as well as thorough bilateral evaluation, including dynamic gonioscopy, CCT measurement, retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurement by OCT, and automated visual field. Student's t-test and Chi(2) test were used to evaluate continuous and categorical data, respectively, with comparison of the means of paired series. Results. - Mean age at time of diagnosis was 68.1 +/- 11.8 years (range 40-85 years). Six patients were black (12.5%), while the others were white (87.5%, P = 0,0001). Various types of glaucoma were found in the 48 patients (22 men, 26 women, P = 0.564) who developed RVO. No significant difference was found between mean CCT of eyes with RVO and fellow eyes (537.7 +/- 39.8 mu M and 538.4 +/- 36.4 mu M, respectively) (P = 0.527). By stratifying our results according to the various types of glaucoma, mean CCT of involved and fellow eyes was 542.7 +/- 37.6 mu M and 540.6 +/- 33.2 mu M, respectively in the primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) group, 530.4 +/- 45.2 mu M and 535 +/- 43.6 mu M in the chronic angle-closure glaucoma (CACG) group, 549.3 +/- 24.8 mu M and 558 +/- 37.3 mu M in the pseudo-exfoliation glaucoma (PXG) group, and 490 +/- 56.6 mu M and 495 +/- 35.4 mu M in the normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) group. Conclusions. - Contrary to some recently-published studies, our results showed no statistically significant difference between CCT of eyes involved with RVO and fellow eyes. The NTG group seems to have the thinnest CCT. (C) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.