Hyperlipidemia, Blood Lipid Level, and the Risk of Glaucoma: A Meta-Analysis

Previous studies reported that hyperlipidemia and blood lipid levels were associated with glaucoma, ocular hypertension (OHT), and intraocular pressure (IOP). However, studies aimed at investigating this association have yielded conflicting results. Therefore, to shed light on these inconclusive findings, we performed multiple distinct meta-analyses to clarify the association of hyperlipidemia and blood lipid levels with glaucoma, OHT, and IOP.

A systematic literature search from Embase, Web of Science, and PubMed was performed to identify relevant studies. To assess the association between hyperlipidemia and glaucoma, we used the pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). When we assessed the association between blood lipid levels and IOP levels, the pooled mean difference in IOP associated with a 10 mg/dL increase in the blood lipid level was estimated. The pooled difference in IOP was also estimated between patients with and without hyperlipidemia. All the papers that assessed the correlation between hyperlipidemia and glaucoma, between blood lipid levels and IOP levels, and between hyperlipidemia and IOP were included in this meta-analysis.

We detected a marked association between hyperlipidemia and glaucoma (OR = 1.37; 95% CI = 1.16-1.61), with significant heterogeneity among studies. However, hyperlipidemia was not significantly associated with glaucoma in our analysis of only cross-sectional studies, studies that reported only on hypercholesterolemia patients, studies that were conducted only in North America and Europe, or studies in which normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) patients were included only in the subgroup analyses. The pooled results showed that an increase of 10 mg/dL in blood triglyceride levels would increase the IOP by 0.016 mm Hg (95% CI = 0.009-0.024), with evident heterogeneity between studies (P < 0.001; I2 = 92.0%). The pooled results showed that the blood total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) level both had a significant association with IOP. When compared to the patients with nonhyperlipidemia, those with hyperlipidemia had a significantly higher IOP of 0.51 mm Hg (95% CI = 0.18-0.83) (P = 0.001 for heterogeneity; I2 = 81.6%).

The evidence suggests that hyperlipidemia is significantly associated with an increased risk of glaucoma and that hyperlipidemia and the increased blood lipid levels are associated with increased IOP.