Skip to main content

  • Impact of Sustained Abnormal BP on the Optic Nerve

    By Lynda Seminara
    Selected by Prem S. Subramanian, MD, PhD
    Add to My Bookmarks

    Journal Highlights

    Translational Vision Science & Technology
    2023;12(2):3

    Download PDF

    Pan-Doh et al. looked at the relation­ship between blood pressure (BP) patterns and OCT measures of optic nerve (ON) health late in a patient’s life, including density of the ganglion cell complex (GCC) and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). They found that neither sustained hyperten­sion nor late-life hypotension correlated with structural abnormalities of the ON.

    For this community-based cohort study, the authors included White and Black participants of the Atherosclero­sis Risk in Communities study and the nested Eye Determinants of Cognition (EyeDOC) study. Each patient had six BP readings obtained from 1987 to 2017. Based on these readings, the patient was categorized as having:

    • sustained normotension,
    • midlife normotension plus late-life hypertension (systolic BP [SBP] >140 mm Hg or diastolic BP [DBP] >90 mm Hg or using antihypertensive medication),
    • sustained hypertension,
    • midlife normotension plus late-life hypotension (SBP <90 mm Hg or DBP <60 mm Hg), or
    • midlife hypertension plus late-life hypotension.

    Associations between each BP pattern and late-life OCT findings for GCC and RNFL thickness were assessed by linear regression modeling. Alto­gether, 931 patients (931 eyes) were included. Mean age at the EyeDOC study visit was 80 years. Sixty-three percent were women, and 45% were Black. With sustained normotension, the mean GCC and RNFL thickness was 90.8 ± 10.3 μm and 89.9 ± 11.2 μm, respectively. With sustained hyper­tension, the GCC and RNFL measure­ments were 89.4 ± 11.9 μm and 90.1 ± 12.2 μm, respectively (not significantly different from normotension). Similar­ly, there were no significant differences in GCC or RNFL thickness between the normotension pattern and any of the other three anomalous BP patterns.

    According to the authors, these findings suggest that neither hyper­tension (even in midlife) nor late-life hypotension is a risk factor for late-life ON damage.

    The original article can be found here.