Relationship between ciliary blood flow and aqueous production: does it play a role in glaucoma therapy?

This review will summarize the authors' recent studies of the relationship between ciliary blood flow and aqueous production, and discuss the relevance of that relationship to the mechanisms of action of glaucoma drugs that lower intraocular pressure by inhibiting aqueous production. The ciliary processes are not easily accessible, and so the data presented necessarily come from animals and from instrumentation operated at its engineering limits. Verification of the findings in humans, and perhaps refinement of the interpretations, must await future advances in technology. Nonetheless, the results to date are intriguing, and may help explain some paradoxes in glaucoma pharmacology.