[Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), retinal vein occlusions (RVO) and central corneal thickness (CCT): what is the relationship?].

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between various types of glaucoma, retinal vein occlusion (RVO), and central corneal thickness (CCT) METHODS: We followed 48 known glaucoma patients who developed any type of retinal vein occlusion. Mean follow-up was 4.2 years. At all visits, patients had a detailed ocular history, as well as thorough bilateral evaluation, including dynamic gonioscopy, CCT measurement, retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurement by OCT, and automated visual field. Student's t-test and Chi(2) test were used to evaluate continuous and categorical data, respectively, with comparison of the means of paired series.

RESULTS: Mean age at time of diagnosis was 68.1 ± 11.8 years (range 40-85 years). Six patients were black (12.5%), while the others were white (87.5%, P=0,0001). Various types of glaucoma were found in the 48 patients (22 men, 26 women, P=0.564) who developed RVO. No significant difference was found between mean CCT of eyes with RVO and fellow eyes (537.7 ± 39.8 μM and 538.4 ± 36.4 μM, respectively) (P=0.527). By stratifying our results according to the various types of glaucoma, mean CCT of involved and fellow eyes was 542.7 ± 37.6 μM and 540.6 ± 33.2 μM, respectively in the primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) group, 530.4 ± 45.2 μM and 535 ± 43.6 μM in the chronic angle-closure glaucoma (CACG) group, 549.3 ± 24.8 μM and 558 ± 37.3 μM in the pseudo-exfoliation glaucoma (PXG) group, and 490 ± 56.6 μM and 495 ± 35.4 μM in the normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) group.

CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to some recently-published studies, our results showed no statistically significant difference between CCT of eyes involved with RVO and fellow eyes. The NTG group seems to have the thinnest CCT.