The Correlation Between Aortic Stenosis and the Subsequent Incidence of Optic Neuropathy: A Population-based Cohort Study.

Background/aim: To survey the potential correlation between aortic stenosis (AS) and subsequent optic neuropathies of glaucoma and ischemic optic neuropathy.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted with the use of the TriNetX database, a project by the US Collaborative Network which enrolled 68 healthcare institutions. PSM There were 426,980 and 426,980 people divided into the AS and non-AS groups after exclusion. The primary outcomes were the development of glaucoma and ischemic optic neuropathy. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to produce the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of the optic neuropathies between groups.

Results: There were 11,717 and 8,676 glaucoma episodes found in the AS and no-AS groups, and there were 566 and 391 ischemic optic neuropathy episodes found in the AS and no-AS groups. The AS group had a significantly higher risk of glaucoma (aHR=1.277, 95% CI=1.242-1.312, <0.001) and ischemic optic neuropathy (aHR=1.362, 95% CI=1.197-1.549, <0.001) compared to the non-AS population. The cumulative probability of glaucoma and ischemic optic neuropathy were significantly higher in the AS group than the non-AS group (both <0.001). In the multivariate analysis, the incidence of ischemic optic neuropathy was significantly higher in the AS group compared to that of the non-AS group with different characteristics except in those with Asian race, aged 20-44 years old, and aged 65-80 years old (all 95% CIs included 1).

Conclusion: The existence of AS correlates to higher risk of developing glaucoma and ischemic optic neuropathy.