CORRELATION BETWEEN RETINAL FLUORESCEIN ANGIOGRAPHY AND BLOOD-VISCOSITY AND OTHER FACTORS IN PATIENTS WITH PRIMARY OPEN-ANGLE GLAUCOMA

Objective To investigate the correlation among retinal fluorescein ang iography, blood viscosity, and other factors in patients with open ang le glaucoma (POAG). Methods Multiple step regression analysis was made to investigate the correlation between each of the following blood ve ssel filling times: the arm-choroid (A-CT), arm-retinal artery (A-AT), and retinal artery-venous (A-VT) of the fundus fluorescein angiograph y (FPA) in 122 eyes with POAG and each of the following related factor s in hemorrheology: whole blood apparent viscosity at low, medium and high shear rates, plasma viscosity and hematocrit. Also, the same anal ysis was applied to investigate the correlation between each of the A- AT, A-VT of the FFA in 70 eyes with POAG and the following factors: sy stolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, age and whole blood a pparent viscosity at low shear rate. Results The whole blood apparent viscosity at low shear rate was closely related to A-CT and A-AT, whil e hematocrit was closely related to A-VT of the FFA. The whole blood a pparent viscosity at low shear rate and age, especially the whole bloo d apparent viscosity, was closely related to A-AT, A-VT of the FFA. Co nclusion Blood viscosity can affect the filling times of the FFA in PO AG.