Egbert P R, Jacobson D W, Fiadoyor S, Dadzie P, Ellingson K D
Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA.
Br J Ophthalmol. 2005 Jul;89(7):796-8. doi: 10.1136/bjo.2004.061895.
Onchocerciasis is a microfilarial disease that causes ocular disease and blindness. Previous evidence of an association between onchocerciasis and glaucoma has been mixed. This study aims to further investigate the association between onchocerciasis and glaucoma.
All subjects were patients at the Bishop John Ackon Christian Eye Centre in Ghana, west Africa, undergoing either trabeculectomy for advanced glaucoma or extracapsular extraction for cataracts, who also had a skin snip biopsy for onchocerciasis. A cross sectional case-control study was performed to assess the difference in onchocerciasis prevalence between the two study groups.
The prevalence of onchocerciasis was 10.6% in those with glaucoma compared with 2.6% in those with cataracts (OR, 4.45 (95% CI 1.48 to 13.43)). The mean age in the glaucoma group was significantly younger than in the cataract group (59 and 65, respectively). The groups were not significantly different with respect to sex or region of residence. In models adjusted for age, region, and sex, subjects with glaucoma had over three times the odds of testing positive for onchocerciasis (OR, 3.50 (95% CI 1.10 to 11.18)).
This study has shown a positive association between subclinical onchocerciasis and glaucoma. This finding emphasises the importance of eradication of onchocerciasis from west Africa.
盘尾丝虫病是一种微丝蚴病，可导致眼部疾病和失明。先前关于盘尾丝虫病与青光眼之间关联的证据并不一致。本研究旨在进一步调查盘尾丝虫病与青光眼之间的关联。
所有受试者均为西非加纳约翰·阿孔主教基督教眼科中心的患者，他们要么因晚期青光眼接受小梁切除术，要么因白内障接受囊外摘除术，同时还进行了盘尾丝虫病的皮肤活检。进行了一项横断面病例对照研究，以评估两个研究组之间盘尾丝虫病患病率的差异。
青光眼患者中盘尾丝虫病的患病率为10.6%，而白内障患者中为2.6%（比值比，4.45（95%可信区间1.48至13.43））。青光眼组的平均年龄明显低于白内障组（分别为59岁和65岁）。两组在性别或居住地区方面无显著差异。在根据年龄、地区和性别进行调整的模型中，青光眼患者盘尾丝虫病检测呈阳性的几率是对照组的三倍多（比值比，3.50（95%可信区间1.10至11.18））。
本研究显示亚临床盘尾丝虫病与青光眼之间存在正相关。这一发现强调了在西非根除盘尾丝虫病的重要性。
