The Relationship Between Systemic Blood Pressure and Intraocular Pressure in a Hospital Sample of Ghanaian Adults

Abstract

Some studies in the Caucasian subject showed that systemic blood pressure is related to in-traocular pressure (IOP) and that hypertensive patients are prone to develop raised IOP (glaucoma) but there are few records from black Africans where systemic hypertension is com-mon. We have thus examined IOP in 113 hypertensive patients and compared their IOP with IOP in 74 normotensive patients. The results showed that mean IOP was higher in hypertensive than normotensive subjects (p< 0.001) and there was a significant correlation between blood pressure distribution and IOP in the combined population. Therefore patients with high blood pressure should be screened for open angle glaucoma as a preventive measure.