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Certain glaucoma patients showed suppressed adrenal response in study

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Patients with ocular hypertension and open-angle glaucoma showed below-normal levels of plasma cortisol in response to intramuscular adrenocorticotropic hormone, a study found. The finding suggests such patients may have a suppressed adrenal gland, the authors said.

Bernard Schwartz, MD, PhD, and colleagues administered intramuscular adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) to 29 normal study participants and 24 patients with ocular hypertension (OH) plus primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) without pigmented angles. The researchers found that, compared with the normal control subjects, patients with OH plus POAG had lower cortisol per body mass index (BMI) values at 4, 8 and 24 hours. They also had a significantly lower peak/BMI value, according to the study.

"Multivariate analyses with the peak plasma cortisol/BMI level as the dependent variable showed that a lower peak plasma/BMI was associated with the OH plus POAG group. Also, a lower peak plasma cortisol/BMI level was associated with a lower 0-hour cortisol/BMI (Log)," the authors reported.

The study is published in the May issue of the Journal of Glaucoma.