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Glaucoma is an abnormal condition of elevated intraocular pressure (above 21 millimeters of mercury); it causes gradual loss of peripheral vision, and can lead to blindness. It is well known that changes in posture and body position affect intraocular pressure. A change from sitting to lying is reported by several authors to cause an average increase of 2 to 3 millimeters, or mm, in intraocular pressure. Blood pressure is not correlated with intraocular pressure, but it is related to blood flow. It is believed that abnormalities in the regulation of blood flow at the optic nerve may play a role in the pressure-induced loss of nerve fibers in glaucoma. A study was undertaken to study the relationship between blood pressure and intraocular pressure in two extremes of glaucoma: ocular hypertension, a condition of elevated pressure without eye damage, and low-tension glaucoma, a condition of normal pressure with glaucomatous eye damage. Patients with ocular hypertension, low-tension glaucoma and normal volunteers were studied to determine the effect of posture on intraocular pressure. Moving from sitting to lying down caused an average intraocular pressure increase of 4.4 mm in the controls; 4.0 mm in the ocular hypertension patients and 4.1 mm in the low-tension glaucoma patients. After 30 minutes of lying down, the intraocular pressure remained the same in both the normal volunteers and patients with low-tension glaucoma; the ocular hypertension patients showed a further significant increase of 1.6 mm, as well as a significant decrease in blood pressure. This finding indicates that there are different mechanisms for the regulation of intraocular pressure among these groups. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Purpose: To evaluate the quality of life (QOL) related to the visual functioning of elderly normal-tension glaucoma(NTG) patients quantitatively., Subjects & Methods: 231 NTG patients 65 years or older with visual field loss in Humphrey visual field analysis were studied. The correlation of the subjects' VFQ-25 scores were studied with their patient background information, as well as with their eye test values for intraocular pressure, corrected visual acuity, refraction, mean deviation (MD), and pattern standard deviation (PSD) in the worst seeing eye., Results: No correlation with the VFQ-25 scores (VFQ-S) was found in any of the 12 sub-scales for gender, age, or duration of the disease. However, the number of glaucoma eye-drop solutions showed a negative correlation with 2 sub-scales. Driving was the only sub-scale in which a correlation was found between the VFQ-S and the subjects' intraocular pressure. Corrected visual acuity demonstrated correlations in many of the sub-scales. MD measurements showed a high correlation with the VFQ-S in all items except general health and ocular pain. On the other hand, no correlation with the VFQ-S was observed in any of the sub-scales for the PSD measurements., Conclusion: The VFQ-S of elderly NTG patients showed a high degree of reliability. The VFQ-25 scores were useful and suitable tools for evaluating the QOL of glaucoma patients with visual field and acuity impairment.