Clinical factors associated with progression of normal-tension glaucoma.

PURPOSE

To investigate clinical factors associated with the progression of visual field loss in normal-tension glaucoma (NTG).

METHODS

One hundred and ten patients with NTG whose cases were followed for more than 2 years were retrospectively analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier life table method and the Cox proportional hazards model. Several clinical factors were investigated to find a possible association with progression of glaucomatous visual field defined by two different definitions: one by mean deviation change and the other by pointwise comparison.

RESULTS

The Cox proportional hazards model indicated that change in the visual field was significantly associated with treatment with calcium channel blockers, recovery rate from a cold recovery test, systolic blood pressure, disc hemorrhage, corrected pattern standard deviation, mean deviation, and fluctuation of intraocular pressure (IOP) at a 24-hour phasing. The probability of nonprogression of visual field loss was significantly higher for patients taking calcium channel blockers than for control subjects by either definition of visual field progression.

CONCLUSION

Factors other than IOP, including the use of calcium channel blockers, are associated with the outcome of visual field loss in NTG.