[Colour Doppler imaging in normal pressure glaucoma patients]

Ocular hemodynamics is of great interest in glaucoma, especially since vascular disturbances may play a pathogenetic role in disease development. To investigate the hemodynamic differences between normal pressure glaucoma patients and normal volunteers, flow velocities of the retrobulbar vessels were measured by colour Doppler imaging.

15 patients with normal pressure glaucoma (NPG) and 15 healthy volunteers underwent colour Doppler imaging (CDI) of the retrobulbar vessels. The patients and the volunteers were especially gender- and age-matched. Peak systolic velocities (PSV), end-diastolic velocities (EDV), and resistive indices (RI) of the ophthalmic artery and central retinal artery were obtained.

In NPG patients, PSV and EDV in the central retinal artery were significantly decreased, whereas RI was increased in central retinal artery and the ophthalmic artery.

Colour Doppler imaging is a non-invasive technique that allows further estimation of the ocular circulatory status. Particularly in the group of patients with disturbed hemodynamics, like NPG patients, it was able to show a reduction of the retrobulbar hemodynamics.