No heart attack link to glaucoma

Patients with glaucoma are not at an increased risk of developing systemic vascular disease, according to a study published in the August 2008 issue of the Acta Ophthalmologica.

Ahti Tarkkanen, MD of the Department of Ophthalmology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland and colleagues conducted a medical record review of glaucomatous patients (n=499) admitted to Finnish hospitals to assess any possible link between primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG; n=344) or exfoliation glaucoma (EG; n=155) and arterial hypertension (HT), ischaemic heart disease (IHD), cerebrovascular incidents or abdominal aorta aneurysm. Patients in the POAG group were younger and more likely to have diabetes mellitus (DM), a known cardiovascular disease risk factor, than patients in the EG group.

After adjusting for traditional risk factors, the team found no difference in the level of HT, IHD or cardiovascular incidents between the study subjects and the general population.

Therefore, the team concluded that neither POAG nor EG is a risk factor for the development of systemic vascular disease.