Primary Open Angle Glaucoma is Associated with MR Biomarkers of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease

This prospective study tests the hypotheses that: 1) glaucoma is associated with evidence of cerebral small vessel disease; 2) that imaging biomarkers of cerebral small vessel disease in POAG and NTG will show different characteristics. 12 normal controls, 7 patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and 9 patients with normal tension glaucoma (NTG) were recruited. Ophthalmological clinical assessment and MR imaging of the brain were performed. MR imaging was used to quantify white matter lesion load, frequency of dilated perivascular spaces (PVS) and abnormalities in cerebral hydrodynamics. Patients with POAG had significantly greater white matter lesion load (p < 0.05), more PVS in the centrum semiovale (p < 0.05) and had higher overall PVS scores than controls (p < 0.05). In the POAG group, optic cup-to-disc ratio (CDR) was positively correlated with deep white matter hyperintensities (R(2) = 0.928, p < 0.01). Mean deviation on the Humphrey visual field assessment was negatively correlated with deep white matter lesion load (R(2) = -0.840, p < 0.01), total white matter lesion load (R(2) = -0.928, p < 0.01) and total PVS (R(2) = -0.820, p < 0.01). MR evidence of cerebral small vessel disease is strongly associated with a diagnosis of POAG and with the severity of abnormalities in CDR and visual field.