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Association between glaucoma eye drops and hyperemia

Japanese Journal of Ophthalmology volume 60, pages 72–77 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

We used an image analysis software program to quantitatively investigate conjunctival injection in patients treated with eye drops for glaucoma.

Methods

We compared 169 patients (89 men and 80 women) with a diagnosis of glaucoma. Photographs of the conjunctiva were taken on the temporal side of each patient’s right eye using a slit lamp. We determined the mean pixel frequencies of the conjunctival blood vessels from the photographs.

Results

The ocular hyperemia of the patients being treated with prostaglandins was more severe than that of the patients being treated with beta-blockers or no eye drops. In multiple comparisons of each of the eye drops, the control group had a significantly lower degree of hyperemia than did the patients being treated with each of the various prostaglandin analogs (latanoprost, travoprost, tafluprost, and bimatoprost). Among the patients receiving prostaglandin, the percentage of those with hyperemia was highest in the bimatoprost users, followed in order by the travoprost, latanoprost, and tafluprost users. However, no significant differences were found among the different prostaglandin analogs in terms of the percentage of patients with hyperemia.

Conclusion

Our software program may be useful for evaluating the hyperemic effects of eye drops used for glaucoma. The particular type of prostaglandin analog seems to determine the level of conjunctival hyperemia during ocular hypotensive medical treatment.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima, 734-8551, Japan

    Masahide Yanagi, Yoshiaki Kiuchi & Yuki Yuasa

  2. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Kochi University, Nankoku, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Yoneda, Tamaki Sumi & Atsuki Fukushima

  3. NIDEK CO. LTD, Gamagori, Japan

    Yasuhiro Hoshikawa & Masahiko Kobayashi

Authors
  1. Masahide Yanagi
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  2. Yoshiaki Kiuchi
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  3. Yuki Yuasa
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  4. Tsuyoshi Yoneda
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  5. Tamaki Sumi
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  6. Yasuhiro Hoshikawa
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  7. Masahiko Kobayashi
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  8. Atsuki Fukushima
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masahide Yanagi.

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Conflicts of interest

M. Yanagi, Lecture fees (Santen); Y. Kiuchi, Commercial sponsor (Alcon, Pfizer, Santen, Senju); Y. Yuasa, None; T. Yoneda, Lecture fees (Kowa); T. Sumi, Lecture fees (Santen); Y. Hoshikawa, Employee (Nidek); M. Kobayashi, Employee (Nidek); A. Fukushima, Consultant fees (Alcon, Kissei, Kobayashi, Kowa, Kyowa-Kirin, Ohtsuka, Santen, Senju, Tanabe-Mitsubishi), P (License for Hyperemia-analyzing software).

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Cite this article

Yanagi, M., Kiuchi, Y., Yuasa, Y. et al. Association between glaucoma eye drops and hyperemia. Jpn J Ophthalmol 60, 72–77 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-016-0426-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-016-0426-4

Keywords

  • Conjunctival injection
  • Glaucoma
  • Hyperemia
  • Eye drops