Retinal Arteriolar Narrowing in Young Adults With Glaucomatous Optic Disc

Glaucomatous optic disc (GOD) might represent various subclinical processes. However, whether the presence of GOD is related to vascular processes is less clear. This study aimed to assess the retinal vessel diameter, as surrogate markers of vascular regulation, in healthy young adults with GOD compared with normal.

This was a clinic-based case-control study of 54 participants, aged between 18 and 30 years. We included patients with GOD (confirmed with slit-lamp and optical coherence tomography examination having cup-to-disc ratio ≥0.5), intraocular pressure ≤21 mm Hg, no history of hypertension, cardiovascular and kidney disease, anemia, diabetes mellitus, and spherical correction of ≤-1.5 D. Controls were healthy subjects with similar criteria but no sign of GOD. Retinal vessel diameters were measured using semiautomated program [Singapore I Vessel Assessment (SIVA) version 4.0] and expressed as central retinal arteriolar equivalent (CRAE) and central retinal venular equivalent.

The mean CRAE was significantly narrower in patients with GOD than controls (110.6±12.16 vs. 118.6±12.17; P=0.019). Central retinal venular equivalent was not significantly different. A CRAE narrower than 107.1 μm was significantly associated with GOD (odds ratio, 8.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.68-43.9; P<0.001) compared with controls.

Retinal arterioles were narrower in young adults with GOD compared with normal, suggesting that the presence of GOD might be associated with subclinical changes in retinal vascularization even in the absence of increased intraocular pressure. However, the clinical significance of these findings deserves further studies.