부산대학교 도서관

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) and retrobulbar blood flow velocities, as measured by color Doppler imaging (CDI) in glaucoma patients. Methods: We performed a prospective, randomized, observer-masked study involving a total of 197 subjects. Once enrolled, they were divided by three groups: healthy controls (n = 51), normal-tension glaucoma patients (NTG, n = 58), and primary, open-angle glaucoma patients (POAG, n = 88). All subjects underwent a general ophthalmological examination, an ultrasound-based assessment of the ONSD, and a hemodynamic study of the retrobulbar vascularization using CDI. Non-parametric tests, chi-square contingency tables, and the Deming correlations were used to explore differences and correlations between variables in the diagnostic groups. Results: ONSD was not different between experimental groups (p = 0.28). ONSD correlated positively with the pulsatility index of the ophthalmic artery in healthy individuals (p = 0.007), but not in glaucoma patients (NTG: p = 0.41; POAG: p = 0.22). In NTG patients, higher ONSD values were associated with lower end-diastolic and mean flow velocities in the short ciliary arteries (p = 0.005 in both correlations). No such correlation was found in healthy nor POAG groups (p range between 0.15 to 0.96). ONSD was not associated with any CDI-related variable of the central retinal artery in any cohort. Venous outflow velocities were not associated with ONSD in any of the three groups. Conclusions: ONSD is negatively correlated with retrobulbar blood flow velocities in glaucoma patients, but not in healthy controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]