Influence of ACPA-positive rheumatoid arthritis on visual
Sprache des Titels:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
Purpose: To evaluate a possible influence of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide
autoantibodies (ACPA) - positive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on visual field (VF)
testing in patients with arterial hypertension (aHT).
Methods: We conducted an observational cross-sectional study comparing
patients with ACPA-positive RA and aHT, patients with aHT and healthy subjects.
Further inclusion criteria were visual acuity (VA) of 0.8 or better and age
between 40 and 60 years. VF testing was performed with standard automated
achromatic perimetry (SAP), short wavelength automated perimetry (SWAP)
(Octopus 300 \reg) and flicker perimetry (Pulsar \reg). Results were analysed for a
possible correlation with blood pressure or RA-activity.
Results: Twenty subjects with RA and aHT, 26 patients with aHT and 22 healthy
participants were examined. Significant differences were found for mean sensitivity
(MS) in SWAP comparing RA-patients with healthy participants (DMS -3.06,
p = 0.001) and with hypertensive patients (DMS -2.32, p = 0.007). In SAP we
observed a significant difference between patients with RA and healthy subjects
regarding loss variance (LV) (DLV = +9.77, p = 0.004). Flicker perimetry did not
demonstrate significant differences between groups. A correlation of VF changes
with blood pressure level or RA-activity was not observed.
Conclusion: Patients with ACPA-positive RA and aHT showed significant impairment
of VF performance in SWAP compared to patients with aHT alone and
healthy subjects. SAP also revealed a significant difference of LV between RApatients
and healthy subjects. aHT does not seem to induce functional changes in
VF testing alone.
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