People with high pulse pressure - the difference between systolic (beating heart rate) and diastolic (resting heart rate) blood pressure readings - may be at increased risk for high-tension open-angle glaucoma, an eye disease involving the loss of certain retinal cells and atrophy of the optic nerve, experts say.
Researchers in the Netherlands studied more than 5,300 people, including 215 with probable or definite open-angle glaucoma. At the start of the study in 1990-1993, the participants underwent eye examinations and blood pressure checks.
By the third phase of the study, in 1997-1999, the researchers assessed the participants' arterial stiffness - a change in artery structure associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
They also checked the intraocular pressure (pressure within the eye) of participants with opegle glaucoma in order to determine whether they had high-tension open-angle glaucoma (intraocular pressure greater than 21 millimetres of mercury) or normal-tension open-angle glaucoma (pressure of 21 millimetres of mercury or less).
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