HLA class I haplotypes and progression of primary open angle glaucoma

Abstract

Abstract Purpose Patients with primary open‐angle glaucoma (POAG) with HLA class I haplotypes (A9‐B12, A2‐B40, A1‐B8) associated with this disease could have a fast disease progression than patients who wouldn’t present these haplotypes. Methods Anatomic and functional evaluation of 25 patients (six of them with one of the haplotypes associated with glaucoma) followed, in the Glaucoma Outpatient Clinic of the University Hospital of a Brazilian Medical School, for ten years after the typing of their HLA antigens in order to compare with the previous conditions. Results There was observed a higher increase in the cup/disc ratio in patients with HLA haplotypes associated with POAG predisposition (P=0.01248, comparing with patients of different ages; and P=0.0047, comparing with patients of the same age group), however it wasn’t observed significant differences, between these and the others patients with glaucoma, in functional damage progression (evaluated by Humphrey perimetry) neither in losses in retinal nerve fibers layer (evaluated by optical coherence tomography). Conclusion These results show the association of class I HLA haplotypes with faster progression of anatomic alterations of the optic nerve head in patients with glaucoma.