Analysis of Systemic Factors through Blood Examination in Normal-Tension Glaucoma Patients

Na Young Lee; Myung Douk Ahn

doi:10.3341/jkos.2010.51.2.241

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Lee and Ahn: Analysis of Systemic Factors through Blood Examination in Normal-Tension Glaucoma Patients

Original Article

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2010;51(2):241-247.

Published online: 7 September 2010

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2010.51.2.241

Analysis of Systemic Factors through Blood Examination in Normal-Tension Glaucoma Patients

Na Young Lee, MD, PhD^1,², Myung Douk Ahn, MD, PhD^1,³

¹Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea and Visual Science, Seoul, Korea

²Department of Ophthalmology, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, Incheon, Korea

³Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul, Korea

Address reprint requests to Myung Douk Ahn, MD, PhD Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital #505 Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-040, Korea Tel: 82-2-2258-6195, Fax: 82-2-599-7450, E-mail: ahnmd@catholic.ac.kr

Received 19 June 2009 Accepted 21 January 2010

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

In this study, we evaluated systemic hemodynamic factors of normal tension glaucoma.

Methods

Forty patients with normal tension glaucoma and thirty healthy people were investigated with regard to hemoglobin, hematocrit, RBC count, WBC count, platelet count, fasting glucose, HbA1c, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, HDL, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Also, ET-1 and MCP-1 were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits.

Results

The results of the blood examinations showed no statistically significant differences in hemoglobin, hematocrit, RBC count, WBC count, platelet count, fasting glucose, HbA1c, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and hsCRP. Only triglycerides showed a statistically significant difference between the groups (P=0.03). The level of serum ET-1 was significantly higher in the normal tension glaucoma group (P=0.007). The results of MCP-1 showed no statistically significant difference.

Conclusions

We conclude that normal tension glaucoma Is associated with an increased level of triglycerides and that the level of ET-1 could be a hemodynamic cause of normal tension glaucoma.

Keywords: Endothelin-1, Hemodynamic factors, High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, Macrophage chemoattractant protein-1, Normal tension glaucoma

References

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Figure 1.

Graphs demonstrating the value of total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL, HDL and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs CRP) in the control group and the normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) group. Each dot represents the average of each factor (95% confidence interval). ^* Statistical significance (p<0.05) compared with control group.

Figure 2.

Graphs demonstrating the value of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and macrophage chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in the control group and the normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) group. Each dot represents the average of each factor (95% confidence interval). ^*Statistical significance (p<0.05) compared with control group.

Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of the healthy control group and the normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) group. No statistical difference between the two groups (independent t-test)

Characteristics	Control group	NTG group	p-value
No. of cases	30	40	
Sex (male/female)	14/16	17/23	0.13
Age (years)	49.5±15.4	53.9±12.7	0.30

Table 2.

Results of blood examination between the control group and the normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) group (mean± standard deviation)

Factor (unit)	Control group	NTG group	p-value
WBC (10⁹/L)	6.00±1.55	5.94±1.47	0.91
RBC (10¹²/L)	4.56±0.32	4.61±0.43	0.69
Hemoglobin (g/dL)	13.96±0.99	14.19±1.37	0.60
Hematocrit (%)	41.09±2.61	41.85±3.73	0.53
Platelet (10⁹/L)	252.73±61.69	222.59±53.53	0.11
Fasting glucose (mg/dl)	107.02±31.32	108.61±22.72	0.89
HbA1C (%)	5.57±0.59	5.44±0.57	0.53
Total cholesterol (mg/dl)	206.63±33.89	205.95±40.75	0.96
Triglyceride (mg/dl)	108.82±63.72	165.63±95.90	0.03^*
HDL (mg/dl)	66.09±15.70	59.84±15.38	0.24
LDL (mg/dl)	126.90±29.80	120.44±36.78	0.61
hsCRP (mg/dl)	0.08±0.17	0.07±0.07	0.64

^* Statistical significance by t-test (p<0.05). hsCRP: high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.

Table 3.

Results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and macrophage chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in the control group and the normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) group (mean± standard deviation)

Factor	Control group	NTG group	p-value
ET-1	0.12±0.30 pg/ml	1.14±2.37 pg/ml	0.007^*
MCP-1	136.47±36.36 pg/ml	153.47±47.07 pg/m	0.23

^* Statistical significance (p<0.05).

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