Blood pressure linked to development of glaucoma

NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) Glaucoma is more likely to occur in people with an elevated pulse pressure -- the difference between the high blood pressure number (when the heart beats) and the low number (when the heart is relaxed) -- Dutch researchers report.

A high pulse pressure is related to hardening of the arteries, and is also likely an indicator of stiffness in the vessels of the eye, leading to glaucoma, say Dr. Caroline A A Hulsman at the Academic Medical Center in Rotterdam and colleagues.

The investigators examined 5,317 subjects in the Rotterdam Study at the start of the study between 1990 and 1993. At the final follow-up examination in December 1999, 215 individuals were found to have definite or probable glaucoma.

Subjects with higher pulse pressures had a 32 per cent greater likelihood of having glaucoma -- specifically the type known as open-angle glaucoma --than those with lower pulse pressures, the researchers report in the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Hulsman and colleagues conclude that ''blood pressure determinants could be interpreted as possible risk factors for open-angle-glaucoma.'' REUTERS RJ PM0954