C-REACTIVE PROTEIN IN PATIENTS WITH OPEN ANGLE GLAUCOMA

This study aimed to evaluate the C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in patients with open angle glaucoma. This cross sectional study included 36 patients diagnosed with glaucoma compared to 36 healthy controls. Each patient went through a complete ophthalmic examination and blood sampling for CRP. A thirty six cases (23 males, 13 females, mean age 60±11.7 years) with glaucoma and 36 agematched controls (18 males, 18 females, mean age 58.25±10.45 years) were evaluated. Serum CRP levels were significantly higher in glaucoma cases than in controls (median 3.43, range 0.2-8.47 mg/dL) compared to 0.97, 0.17-6.30, P<0.002. The mean serum CRP levels were significantly elevated in the glaucoma cases compared with the controls (3.27±2.79 mg/dL and 1.50±1.56mg/dL respectively). Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that higher CRP levels are associated with glaucoma. It is possible that there is a link between vascular inflammatory process and glaucoma. Introduction laucoma which is a disturbance of structural or functional integrity of the optic nerve due to intraocular pressure effect can usually be diminished by an adequate lowering of intraocular pressure (IOP). Glaucoma is the second important cause of visual field loss worldwide. Glaucoma is characterized by particular pattern of visual field loss which is associated with a continuous thinning of the retinal nerve fiber layer. It is estimated that glaucoma has affected over 60.5 million people's globally. C-reactive protein (CRP) is an early acute stage marker of inflammation that rises in response to acute inflammatory process or active infection, for that reason it can be used as an indicator for acute tissue injury which resulted from infection, and or inflammation. Although the diagnostic specificity of CRP is low, frequent and serial measurements of this protein in order to detect any change or fluctuation can be helpful in clinical management. It is a powerful screening test for organic, infectious or inflammatory diseases and their response to therapy. The CRP levels vary in different age groups and races. Woloshin et al reported the CRP levels in American adults increase from 1.4mg/L at age 20-30 to 2.7 mg/L at age >80, while Anand et al reported in Canada, the CRP level is highest among the original Americans, followed by South Asians, Europeans, and lowest in Chinese. Material and methods A 72 subjects underwent a detailed ophthalmic examination including visual acuity, slit lamp, angle of the anterior chamber, optic nerve head and visual field at the ophthalmic unit in Al-Sader Teaching Hospital and Basrah General Hospital, South Iraq, together with blood sampling for CRP. Patients were subdivided randomly into two groups: group 1; patients with open angle glaucoma (36 cases) and group 2; G