Abstract Introduction Glaucoma is an ophthalmic disease characterized by retinal ganglion cell (RGC) degeneration and leading to progressive and irreversible vision loss. Microvascular dysfunction is a risk factor for glaucoma, due to disrupted autoregulation, increased arteriolar resistance, and decreased blood supply to the RGCs. Nocturnal blood pressure (BP) dipping has also been linked to negative glaucomatous outcomes. We hypothesized that patients with coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) attributed to microvascular dysfunction may present with RGC degeneration. We compared the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell complex (GCC) thicknesses between INOCA patients and controls and we examined whether the 24-hour BP profile can explain any observed differences. Materials 0.05). Higher PPi only correlated with thinner total, inferior, and superior GCC (all P values 0.05). Conclusions CMD patients show early RGC degeneration, associated with less pronounced nocturnal DBP drop, compared to SBP drop. We conjecture that these patients present with a generalized microvascular dysfunction phenotype. Our findings support that vascular damage precede, and not only follow, glaucomatous neurodegeneration.CMD thinner Inferior peripapillary RNFL Bolus thermodilution
Sakalidis et al. (Sat,) studied this question.