Moktika Tandon,Nicholas. H Andrew,TigerZhou, Emmanuelle Souzeau,Bronwyn Usher,Richard Mills, Stuart. L Graham, John Landers, Jamie. E Craig.

Purpose: Glaucoma is the leading cause of irrevers- ible blindness globally. Although risk factors for developing glaucoma are well studied, risk factors for glaucoma blindness (GB) have not been addressed in a large study. The aim was to deter- mine risk factors for GB in patients with perimetric open angle glaucoma.
Method: A cross-sectional analysis was performed on all cases of perimetric open angle glaucoma regis- tered with the Australia and New Zealand Registry of Advanced Glaucoma. Cases with GB (deftned as either eye with best corrected visual acuity (BCVA)
<6/60 or mean deviation (MD) worse than -22dB) were compared to cases without GB. Cases with sig- niftcant co-morbid eye disease affecting BCVA or MD were excluded. Results: 1032 cases with GB and 2072 cases without GB were identifted. Cases with GB had signiftcantly higher rates of pseudoexfoliation syndrome (9.0% vs 5.4%, p<0.001), high tension glaucoma (92.5% vs 77.2%, p<0.001), myopia (p=0.001), male gender (53.0% vs 44.5%, p<0.001), and thinner central cor- neal thickness (CCT, 518um vs 531um, p<0.001). There was no signiftcant difference in the age at diagnosis, ethnicity, or rate of pigment dispersion syndrome. Conclusion: In patients with perimetric open angle glaucoma, risk factors for GB include pseudoexfolia- tion syndrome, high tension glaucoma, male gender, and thinner CCT.