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These authors studied 16 patients with normal tension glaucoma and 16 age matched patients with high tension glaucoma for optic nerve compression by the internal carotid artery. They used MRI. Bilateral compression of the optic nerve was found in 12 normal tension glaucoma patients. In the high tension group such compression was found in only three patients. The occurrence of optic nerve compression was significantly higher in the normal tension glaucoma group than in the high tension glaucoma group. However the clinical characteristics between the compression and non-compression group were not different. So, these data do not proof that vascular compression is a major cause of visual field defects in normal tension glaucoma.
Dr. N. Yoshimura, Department of Ophthalmology, Shinshu University School Medicine, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto 390-8621; Japan
10 Differential diagnosis e.g. anterior and posterior ischemic optic neuropathy