Neovascular Glaucoma May Be Associated with Systemic Vascular Disease, Research Says

Neovascular glaucoma, typically caused by underlying diseases like diabetes, is a secondary glaucoma that increases the risk of strokes, myocardial infarctions and death. Photo: Mohammad Rafieetary, OD. Click image to enlarge. Patients with neovascular glaucoma (NVG) faced higher long-term risks of all-cause mortality and major cardiovascular events than matched controls in a recent study published in Scientific Reports.Researchers conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort study using data from “a global electronic health record network and 1:1 propensity score matched to controls,” according to the team’s paper on the study, with participants consisting of 17,020 adults with neovascular glaucoma. Patients were required to have participated in “any form of recorded follow-up at least one month after the diagnosis of glaucoma” to enter the analysis. For the control group, researchers chose cataract patients aged 50 years or older who lacked retinal vascular issues, glaucoma or certain eye treatments like anti-VEGF injections or photocoagulation and who “had at least one follow-up visit occurring one month or more after the initial cataract diagnosis.”Patients’ average age was about 66 years old. The neovascular glaucoma group included about 55% men, 47% white patients, 25% Black patients and 4% Asian patients. Patients with NVG showed slightly higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, chronic kidney disease, obesity, nicotine dependence and tobacco use, as well as more frequent use of cardiovascular drugs, insulin, anticoagulants and emergency visits.The study followed participants for up to 10 years with a 30-day gap after the index date to focus on later events. Researchers tracked “all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiac arrest, and three-point major adverse cardiovascular events,” concluding that neovascular glaucoma patients experienced an 18.37% mortality compared to 9.76% in the control group (hazard ratio 1.70), as well as higher incident risks of myocardial infarction at 8.10% vs. 4.83% for controls (HR, 1.53), cardiac arrest at 3.02% vs. 1.73% (HR, 1.57) and stroke at 7.51% vs. 4.25% (HR, 1.62) . Additional checks in subgroups with iris vessel changes or glaucoma procedures yielded similar patterns.The authors noted that their findings “suggest that NVG may serve as a clinical marker of systemic vascular disease” and that cardiovascular evaluation had significant potential for detecting issues related to NVG before they led to further problems.Click here for the journal source. Eshel Y, Kubovsky S, Lishinsky-Fischer N, et al. Association of neovascular glaucoma with increased mortality and cardiovascular risk: a multicenter propensity-matched study. Sci Rep. April 5, 2026. [Epub ahead of print]. This article was developed by the editorial staff in conjunction with experts in the field. In the process, AI may have been among the editorial tools used to meet the goals of human editors, who approved all content.