Prevalence of diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension in primary and secondary open-angle glaucomas.

BACKGROUND

This study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension in the open-angle glaucomas.

METHODS

The study consisted of 529 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma, including 170 patients with the age-related atrophic type and 22 patients with the highly myopic type; 152 patients with secondary open-angle glaucoma, including 85 patients with pseudoexfoliative glaucoma; 56 patients with the focal type of normal-pressure glaucoma; and 660 nonglaucomatous subjects in the control group. For all study groups, age-matched control groups were formed.

RESULTS

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension did not vary significantly (P > 0.25; chi-square test) between the non-highly myopic primary open-angle glaucoma groups and the control groups. In highly myopic primary open-angle glaucoma, pseudoexfoliative glaucoma, and focal normal-pressure glaucoma, diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension were less common; however, not in all cases was the difference from the control group significant.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension are not more common in patients with primary and secondary open-angle glaucomas than in age-matched nonglaucomatous subjects. In agreement with some previous epidemiologic studies, diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension may not be positively associated with the primary or secondary open-angle glaucomas.