Pragti Jain1, Anita Minj2, Ramesh Chandra Mahapatra3
BACKGROUND
Glaucoma is a chronic, progressive optic neuropathy leading to irreversible
blindness. Raised intraocular pressure is one of the modifiable risk factors of
developing glaucoma. Regulation of intraocular pressure (IOP) is influenced by
various factors and, systolic hypertension is one of them. The objectives of the
study was to assess the relationship between systolic hypertension and IOP, also
to see the effect of controlled and uncontrolled systolic blood pressure (SBP) on
IOP in adults above 40 years of age.
METHODS
This study included a total of 230 known systemic hypertensive patients of age
above 40 years. All the patients underwent detailed history taking, careful systemic
and ocular examination. IOP was measured by Goldmann applanation tonometer,
central corneal thickness (CCT) by anterior segment optical coherence tomography
(OCT) and blood pressure (BP) was recorded after 5 minutes of rest. The data was
recorded.
RESULTS
Correlation coefficient for SBP and IOP in right eye (RE) was 0.290 and for left eye
(LE) was 0.354 with a probability value of P < 0.0001 which was statistically highly
significant. Mean IOP for controlled SBP was 17.76 mmHg in both eyes (BE) which
increased to 20.19 mmHg in RE and 20.64 mmHg in LE in uncontrolled SBP. The
Z score value between controlled and uncontrolled systolic hypertensive patients
in RE and LE was 6.11 and 7.06 respectively (P < 0.0001). There was an increment
of IOP for every 10 mmHg in SBP by 0.56 mmHg in right eye and 0.73 mmHg in
left eye.
CONCLUSIONS
Systolic blood pressure is significantly correlated with IOP. The uncontrolled SBP
was related to higher mean IOP and mean IOP was found to increase with rise in
SBP. Therefore, patients with known hypertension and glaucoma have to be
regularly followed-up and should keep their BP in normal range to prevent disease
progression.
