Structural glaucomatous progression before and after occurrence of an optic disc haemorrhage

Background An optic disc haemorrhage (DH) has been associated with subsequent structural glaucoma progression, but it is unknown if there is structural progression prior to a DH. We evaluated a cohort of patients to determine whether structural progression occurs before a DH, after a DH or is simply associated with a DH.

Methods Eyes meeting inclusion criteria were placed into two groups. Group 1 included eyes that each had a baseline photograph of the optic nerve and a photograph with a DH at follow-up. Group 2 included eyes that each had a photograph of the optic nerve with a DH at baseline and a photograph at follow-up. Flicker images were created and graded by two ophthalmologists for structural glaucomatous change. We compared the proportion of structural progressors between Groups 1 and 2. Patient characteristics were also compared between the two groups.

Results 49 patients and 51 unique eyes were included. Groups 1 and 2 had 28 and 38 sets of photographs, respectively. The proportion of global progression in Groups 1 and 2 were 21.4% and 39.5%, respectively ( p=0.12). No significant differences in any structural progression feature and patient characteristics (besides age at time of DH (p=0.04) between the two groups were found.

Conclusions Patients show structural glaucomatous progression before and after the event of a disc haemorrhage without significant differences. This suggests that a DH is an ongoing structural progression in glaucoma and may not be a discrete event that leads to subsequent progression.