Spontaneous venous pulsation revisited ‐ relevance to glaucoma?

Abstract

AbstractPurpose Purpose: Address the clinical significance of spontaneous venous pulsation (SVP) assessment in glaucoma patients.Methods Methods: Review of the existing literature on the subject, including own published data. Emphasis on studies that have analyzed this phenomenon using OBF studying technologies.Results Results: Threshold conditions for SVP detection are different in healthy and in glaucoma patients. The variables involved in SVP generation may have a different threshold in normal tension glaucoma (NTG) than the one seen in primary open‐angle glaucoma (POAG) patients. Hemodynamic patterns in POAG reveal a selective venous disturbance in patients lacking SVP, while NTG patients have both arterial and venous changes in their central retinal vessels. Clinically, patients with NTG without a visible SVP have a higher functional damage than their SVP‐positive counterparts.Conclusion Conclusions: The lack of SVP in NTG patients may not only represent a more advanced condition, but also both an arterial and venous dysregulation. More studies are needed to validate these findings.