Purpose: To evaluate the risk factors associated with optic disc haemorrhage in patients with normal tension glaucoma (NTG).
Patients and methods: Two hundred and eighty-one eyes of 281 patients with NTG (113 eyes with optic disc haemorrhage and 168 eyes without haemorrhage) were included in this study. Associations between optic disc haemorrhage and various patient-related variables (diabetes; hypertension; hypotension; cardiac disease; stroke; cold hand; migraine; constipation; use of steroids, aspirin, anticoagulant, or gingko extract; smoking history; and glaucoma family history) and eye-related variables (baseline intraocular pressure (IOP); maximum, minimum, and range of IOP; vertical and horizontal cup/disc ratio; mean deviation and pattern standard deviation of the visual field; corneal thickness; and average retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness measured by optical coherence tomography) were investigated by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Differences in risk factors between patients with single optic disc haemorrhages and recurrent haemorrhages were also analysed.
Results: Optic disc haemorrhage was associated with systemic hypertension (odds ratio, 1.998; 95% confidence interval, 1.094-3.651; P=0.001). IOP range (P=0.080), diabetes (P=0.056), and use of aspirin (P=0.079) also tended to be associated with optic disc haemorrhage. No risk factor was significantly different between the single haemorrhage group and the recurrent haemorrhage group.
Conclusion: Optic disc haemorrhage was associated with systemic hypertension in patients with NTG.