Prevalence of diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension in primary and secondary open-angle glaucomas

Background: This study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension in the open-angle glaucomas. Methods: The study consisted of 529 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma, including 170 patients with the age-related atrophic type and 22 patients with the highly myopic type; 152 patients with secondary open-angle glaucoma, including 85 patients with pseudoexfoliative glaucoma; 56 patients with the focal type of normal-pressure glaucoma; and 660 nonglaucomatous subjects in the control group. For all study groups, age-matched control groups were formed. Results: Prevalence of diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension did not vary significantly (P > 0.25; chi-square test) between the non-highly myopic primary open-angle glaucoma groups and the control groups. In highly myopic primary open-angle,glaucoma, pseudoexfoliative glaucoma, and focal normal-pressure glaucoma, diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension were less common; however, not in all cases was the difference from the control group significant. Conclusions: The results suggest that diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension are not more common in patients with primary and secondary open-angle glaucomas than in age-matched nonglaucomatous subjects. In agreement with some previous epidemiologic studies, diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension may not be positively associated with the primary or secondary open-angle glaucomas.