Sympathetic variability of intraocular pressure of glaucoma patients evaluated by wavelets

Abstract

Abstract Purpose We had showed the usefulness of wavelets in the detection of sympathetic activity in intraocular pressure(IOP).With we intend to evaluate sympathetic activity in glaucoma patients with and without topical therapeutics through the same methodology Methods 3 groups of individuals of both sexes:1)a healthy individuals(HI,n=11);2)two groups of glaucoma patients with Primary Open‐Angle Glaucoma, one under treatment(GT,n=25) and another without(GNT,n=10).In a autonomic Lab. Continuous recording of IOP with Pascal‐DCT,in day before,individuals were told not to smoke and to avoid xanthines or other stimulants ingestion.Glaucoma patients were diagnosed by visual fields defects and optic disc analysis.For GT patients a wash‐out time of 1‐3 weeks was required depending on therapeutics.Individuals under medication or any other pathology that could affect the autonomic nervous system were excluded. Data analysis of systolicIOP in the time‐scale domain with wavelets(Db12)was performed during one minute.Statistical analysis using t‐Student, Welch corrected(Ducla‐Soares et al,2007)was used.LFIOP was calculated for the 3 groups and differenc.were consid. significant where p<0.05.Data(mean±SEM) Results Mean age 49(40‐70),64(45‐67)and 61(36‐61) for HI,GT and GNT groups, respectively.The quantization of sympathetic variability of SIOP by wavelets was 0.4±0.17;0.122±0.075 and 0.118±0.067 for HI,GT and GNT groups respectively.Values were significantly different between HI and GT(p<0.05)and GNT(p<0.05)but not between the two groups of glaucoma patients Conclusion Our data show that glaucoma patients have a significant decrease in sympathetic activity that could be due to an extraocular mechanism that persists with therapeutics