Retinal Blood Flow and Nerve Fiber Layer Meaurement in Early-tage Open-Angle Glaucoma Original Reearch Article

Purpoe To evaluate the relationhip between retinal circulatory abnormalitie and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thinning in early-tage open-angle glaucoma (OAG) to help elucidate the mechanim underlying the development of glaucomatou optic neuropathy. Deign Propective cro-ectional. Method Twelve patient with early OAG and a known maximum untreated intraocular preure le than 22 mm Hg (age, 61.4 ± 9.7 year; Humphrey viual field mean deviation −2.7 ± 2.1) and eight age-matched healthy control ubject (age, 58.5 ± 8.3 year) were included in the tudy. Blood column diameter, centerline blood peed, and retinal blood flow were meaured in the major inferior temporal retinal artery uing a Canon laer Doppler blood flow intrument (CLBF 100; Canon, Tokyo, Japan). Peripapillary RNFL thickne wa meaured uing a tratu optical coherence tomography intrument. Reult On average, there were ignificant reduction in retinal blood peed (P = .009) and flow (P = .010) in OAG patient compared to control. The RNFL wa ignificantly thinner in the OAG patient compared to control (P = .002). There were ignificant invere correlation between retinal blood flow and average RNFL thickne and RNFL thickne in the inferior quadrant within the glaucoma group (Rq = 0.50, P = .01; Rq = 0.62, P = .003). Concluion The reult howed that a thinner RNFL wa aociated with a higher retinal blood flow in patient with early-tage OAG. The mechanim underlying thi phenomenon remain to be elucidated.