Low blood pressure linked to increase risk of OAG

Low blood pressure is associated with an increased risk of developing incident open angle glaucoma (OAG), according to a study.

In this retrospective, longitudinal cohort study, 20,815 eye patients in the All of Us Research Program database with ≥15 months of follow-up and 1 blood pressure (BP) measurement were included.

Overall, 462 developed OAG. Low blood pressure, defined as a mean arterial pressure< 83.0 mmHg was associated with an increased risk of developing OAG

After adjusting for covariates, high blood pressure and the number of blood pressure medication classes were not associated with OAG.

Other risk factors included:

-Being Black, Hispanic/Latino, or Asian

-Older in age (80+ years)

-Diabetic

Female gender was associated with a decreased risk of developing OAG.

There was no significant association found between mean arterial pressure and number of medications on the risk of developing OAG.

“This study adds to the body of literature implicating vascular dysregulation as a potential etiology for the development of OAG, particularly emphasizing the lack of influence of blood pressure medications on this relationship,” the authors concluded.

Reference
Lee EB, Hu W, Singh K, et al. The association between blood pressure, blood pressure medications, and glaucoma in a nationwide electronic health records database. Ophthalmol. 2021; DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2021.10.018