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There has been a controversy through the literature if IOP is related to the retinal vessel diameter and if this is related to glaucoma. As one can assume that in healthy children the physiology is almost unaffected by any kind of pathologyde Haseth et al. (552) examined a cohort of children to investigate the relation between IOP and vessel diameter. They used digital retinal photographs and non contact tonometry and showed that the retinal vessel diameter in children were not dependent on IOP.
It is possible that a relationship between vessel diameters and IOP develops due to age related changesThe authors conclude that due to their findings controlling for IOP does not seem to be necessary in further studies dealing with retinal vessel diameters. Apparently this statement seems to be true for healthy children but probably not for all humans, as it is possible that a relationship between vessel diameters and IOP develops due to age related changes. Additionally as vessel diameter is not constant but changes (e.g., due to each heart action) dynamic examinations of the vessel diameters would add significant information. The question if changes in vessels diameters are related to glaucoma and if the changes are secondary remains unanswered and needs to be addressed in future research.