Study finds H. pylori antibodies elevated in glaucoma patients

Levels of antibodies specific to Helicobacter pylori were found to be significantly higher in people with primary open-angle glaucoma and exfoliation glaucoma compared to cataract surgery patients in a prospective study. The study authors believe that the bacteria may play a role in the pathobiology of these forms of glaucoma.

Jannis Kountouras and colleagues at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) aspirated aqueous humor from 26 eyes of 26 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), 27 eyes of 27 patients with exfoliation glaucoma and 31 eyes of age-matched cataract patients undergoing phaco. In addition, serum samples were taken 1 day preoperatively from all patients.

The mean concentration of the antibacterial immunoglobulin G was significantly greater in aqueous humor samples from patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (P = .006) and exfoliation glaucoma (P = .003) than in the cataract patients, the researchers found. The serum concentration of anti-H. pylori antibodies was also significantly greater in the glaucoma patients than in the cataract patients.

The authors also noted that both groups of patients with glaucoma had a higher prevalence of H. pylori-positive cases than their cataract counterparts.

“Interestingly, the positivity status for H. pylori appeared to correlate with the severity of glaucomatous cupping in our POAG patients,” the authors said in the online version of Graefe’s Archive of Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology.

Future studies in larger glaucoma cohorts throughout the clinical range are needed to verify these findings, the authors said.