This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Study refutes link between central retinal artery occlusion and neovascular glaucoma

Ophthalmology. 2009;116(10):1928-1936.

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Central retinal artery occlusion is not a direct cause of neovascular glaucoma, according to a study.

"It is the chronically hypoxic retina that is thought to liberate vasoproliferative factor to cause ocular neovascularization, which is totally missing in [central retinal artery occlusion]," the study authors said. "Thus, there is little scientific rationale for [central retinal artery occlusion] to cause ocular neovascularization per se."

The prospective, longitudinal cohort study included 499 eyes of 439 untreated patients: 289 eyes in 249 patients had central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) and 210 eyes of 190 patients had branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO).

Study data showed that neovascular glaucoma developed in 2.5% of eyes with nonarteritic CRAO. Additionally, in nonarteritic CRAO and BRAO, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and smoking was significantly higher than in matched patients.

"The presence of plaques in the carotid artery is generally of much greater importance than the degree of stenosis in the artery," the authors said. "Contrary to prevalent misconception, we found no cause-and-effect relationship between CRAO and neovascular glaucoma."