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Purpose: To assess the association between a glaucoma polygenic risk score (PRS) and treatment outcomes in primary open-angle glaucoma., Design: Prospective, observational cohort study., Participants: Participants from the Progression Risk of Glaucoma: Relevant SNPs with Significant Association Study were divided into a cohort with suspect glaucoma who were treatment naive at enrollment and one with early manifest and suspect glaucoma receiving treatment at enrollment., Methods: A per-allele weighted glaucoma PRS was calculated for 1107 participants. Multivariable mixed-effects Cox proportional regression analysis assessed the association between PRS and time to commencement of intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering therapy in 416 patients with suspect glaucoma who were treatment naive at study enrollment. Secondary analysis evaluated the association between PRS and escalation of IOP-lowering therapy among 691 patients with suspect and early manifest glaucoma who were receiving IOP-lowering therapy at enrollment., Main Outcome Measures: Commencement or escalation of IOP-lowering therapy., Results: A higher PRS was associated with a greater risk of commencing IOP-lowering therapy within 5 years (hazard ratio [HR], 1.45 per 1 standard deviation [/SD]; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27-1.62; P < 0.001). Participants in the upper population-based quintile showed a 3.3 times greater risk of commencing therapy by 5 years than those in the lowest quintile (HR, 3.30; 95% CI, 1.63-6,70; P < 0.001) and a 5.4 times greater risk of commencing IOP-lowering therapy by 2 years than the those in the lowest quintile (HR, 5.45; 95% CI, 2.08-14.25; P < 0.001). A higher PRS was associated with a greater risk of treatment escalation among patients receiving treatment at enrollment (HR, 1.19/SD; 95% CI, 1.09-1.31; P < 0.001). In combined analysis of all participants, participants in the top population-based quintile were at 2.3 times greater risk of requiring initiation or escalation of IOP-lowering therapy than those in the lowest quintile (HR, 2.33; 95% CI, 1.75-3.01; P < 0.001)., Conclusions: This study demonstrated novel associations between glaucoma polygenic risk and risk of commencement or escalation of IOP-lowering therapy, building on previous work highlighting the potential clinical usefulness of genetic risk stratification in glaucoma., Financial Disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references., (Copyright © 2023 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To assess the association between physical activity and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT)-measured rates of macular thinning in an adult population with primary open-angle glaucoma., Methods: The correlation between accelerometer-measured physical activity and rates of macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thinning was measured in 735 eyes from 388 participants of the Progression Risk of Glaucoma: RElevant SNPs with Significant Association (PROGRESSA) study. The association between accelerometer-measured physical activity and cross-sectional SD-OCT macular thickness was then assessed in 8862 eyes from 6152 participants available for analysis in the UK Biobank who had SD-OCT, ophthalmic, comorbidity, and demographic data., Results: Greater physical activity was associated with slower rates of macular GCIPL thinning in the PROGRESSA study (beta = 0.07 µm/y/SD; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.03-0.13; P = 0.003) after adjustment for ophthalmic, demographic and systemic predictors of macular thinning. This association persisted in subanalyses of participants characterized as glaucoma suspects (beta = 0.09 µm/y/SD; 95% CI, 0.03-0.15; P = 0.005). Participants in the upper tertile (greater than 10,524 steps/d) exhibited a 0.22-µm/y slower rate of macular GCIPL thinning than participants in the lower tertile (fewer than 6925 steps/d): -0.40 ± 0.46 µm/y versus -0.62 ± 0.55 µm/y (P = 0.003). Both time spent doing moderate/vigorous activity and mean daily active calories were positively correlated with rate of macular GCIPL thinning (moderate/vigorous activity: beta = 0.06 µm/y/SD; 95% CI, 0.01-0.105; P = 0.018; active calories: beta = 0.06 µm/y/SD; 95% CI, 0.006-0.114; P = 0.032). Analysis among 8862 eyes from the UK Biobank revealed a positive association between physical activity and cross-sectional total macular thickness (beta = 0.8 µm/SD; 95% CI, 0.47-1.14; P < 0.001)., Conclusions: These results highlight the potential neuroprotective benefits of exercise on the human retina.

Purpose: To evaluate the association between a polygenic risk score (PRS) for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and the age at the first trabeculectomy and the need for bilateral trabeculectomy., Design: Retrospective observational cohort study., Participants: Nine hundred and three genotyped participants with POAG from the Australian and New Zealand Registry of Advanced Glaucoma., Methods: The ocular surgical history of these participants was reviewed and the following parameters were recorded: age at diagnosis, age at trabeculectomy, and lateraly of trabeculectomy. Multivariate linear regression analyses correlated glaucoma PRSs with age at trabeculectomy, and laterality of trabeculectomy. For descriptive purposes, the participants were stratified into the top decile, intermediate group (10th-89th percentile), and bottom decile., Main Outcome Measures: Age at trabeculectomy, and laterality of trabeculectomy., Results: Higher PRS was associated with younger age at the first trabeculectomy (β, -1.94 years/standard deviation; 95% confidence interval [CI], - 0.41 to -3.47; P = 0.014). Participants in the top decile underwent their first trabeculectomy approximately 7 years earlier than participants in the lowest decile (mean difference, -7.04 years; 95% CI, 2.82-11.26). Participants in the top decile were 1.41-fold more likely to require bilateral trabeculectomy than participants in the bottom decile (odds ratio, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.06-1.91; P = 0.021)., Conclusions: This report identified clinically relevant correlations between glaucoma PRS and the need for surgical intervention in patients with glaucoma. Further work is required to investigate the association between PRS and other clinical end points such as treatment initiation., (Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: ADAMTSL4- associated ectopia lentis is a rare autosomal recessive condition that is primarily associated with crystalline lens displacement. However, the prevalence of other ocular and systemic manifestations of this condition is poorly understood. In this study, we summarize the ocular and systemic phenotypic spectrum of this condition., Methods: A cross-sectional case study series of four individuals with biallelic pathogenic or likely pathogenic ADAMTSL4 variants was performed alongside a literature review of individuals with ADAMTSL4 -associated ectopia lentis on September 29, 2021. Ocular and systemic findings, complications, and genetic findings of all four individuals were collected and summarized., Results: The phenotypic spectrum across 91 individuals sourced from literature and four individuals from this case study series was highly variable. The main ocular phenotypes included ectopia lentis (95/95, 100%), ectopia lentis et pupillae (18/95, 19%), iris transillumination (13/95, 14%), iridodonesis (12/95, 13%), persistent pupillary membrane (12/95, 13%), and early-onset cataract or lens opacities (12/95, 13%). Anterior segment features other than ectopia lentis appeared to be exclusively associated with biallelic loss of function variants (p<0.001). Pupillary block glaucoma had a prevalence of 1%. Post-lensectomy complications included retinal detachment (6/41, 15%), elevated intraocular pressure (4/41, 10%), and aphakic glaucoma (1/41, 2%). Most individuals were not reported to have had systemic features (69/95, 73%)., Conclusions: The clinical phenotype of ADAMTSL4 -associated ectopia lentis was summarized and expanded. Clinicians should be aware of the varied ocular phenotype and the risks of retinal detachment, ocular hypertension, and glaucoma in the diagnosis and management of this condition., (Copyright © 2022 Molecular Vision.)

Importance: Early diagnosis of open-angle glaucoma can lead to vision-saving treatment, and genetic variation is an increasingly powerful indicator in disease risk stratification., Objective: To compare polygenic and monogenic variants in risk of glaucoma., Design, Setting, and Participants: Clinical and genetic data were obtained for 2507 individuals from the Australian and New Zealand Registry of Advanced Glaucoma (ANZRAG) and 411 337 individuals in cross-sectional cohort studies including individuals of European ancestry in the UK Biobank. Recruitment to the UK Biobank occurred between 2006 and 2010, and data analysis occurred between September 2019 and August 2020., Main Outcomes and Measures: Association of monogenic and polygenic variants with glaucoma risk., Results: Individuals at high polygenic risk, defined as those in the top 5% of an unselected population, had a glaucoma risk (odds ratio [OR], 2.77; 95% CI, 2.58-2.98) comparable with the risk among individuals heterozygous for the MYOC p.Gln368Ter variant (OR 4.19; 95% CI, 3.25-5.31), which is the most common single-gene variant known to cause primary open-angle glaucoma. High polygenic risk was more than 6 times more common than MYOC p.Gln368Ter heterozygosity in ANZRAG (15.7% vs 2.6%) and more than 15 times more common in the general population (5.0% vs 0.32%). Within ANZRAG, high polygenic risk was associated with a mean (SD) age at glaucoma diagnosis that did not differ from the age at glaucoma diagnosis among individuals heterozygous for MYOC p.Gln368Ter (57.2 [14.2] vs 54.8 [13.6] years; P > .99)., Conclusions and Relevance: Monogenic and high polygenic risk were each associated with a more than 2.5-fold increased odds of developing glaucoma and an equivalent mean age at glaucoma diagnosis, with high polygenic risk more than 15 times more common in the general population.

Cupping of the optic nerve head, a highly heritable trait, is a hallmark of glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Two key parameters are vertical cup-to-disc ratio (VCDR) and vertical disc diameter (VDD). However, manual assessment often suffers from poor accuracy and is time intensive. Here, we show convolutional neural network models can accurately estimate VCDR and VDD for 282,100 images from both UK Biobank and an independent study (Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging), enabling cross-ancestry epidemiological studies and new genetic discovery for these optic nerve head parameters. Using the AI approach, we perform a systematic comparison of the distribution of VCDR and VDD and compare these with intraocular pressure and glaucoma diagnoses across various genetically determined ancestries, which provides an explanation for the high rates of normal tension glaucoma in East Asia. We then used the large number of AI gradings to conduct a more powerful genome-wide association study (GWAS) of optic nerve head parameters. Using the AI-based gradings increased estimates of heritability by ∼50% for VCDR and VDD. Our GWAS identified more than 200 loci associated with both VCDR and VDD (double the number of loci from previous studies) and uncovered dozens of biological pathways; many of the loci we discovered also confer risk for glaucoma., (Copyright © 2021 American Society of Human Genetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To investigate which clinical measures influence whether an individual demonstrates earliest glaucomatous structural progression on peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) or macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (mGCIPL)., Design: Prospective, longitudinal cohort study., Participants: Two hundred seventy-one eyes from 207 individuals with statistically significant evidence of glaucomatous progression on OCT Guided Progression Analysis (GPA) software were drawn from a total of 1271 eyes from 686 individuals categorized as glaucoma suspect or having early manifest glaucoma undergoing glaucoma surveillance., Methods: Individuals demonstrating earliest evidence of longitudinal progression on mGCIPL GPA event analysis were compared with individuals demonstrating evidence of earliest longitudinal progression on pRNFL GPA event analysis., Main Outcome Measures: Correlation of OCT event change analysis with intraocular pressure (IOP), clinical variables, and baseline thickness of the pRNFL and mGCIPL., Results: Intraocular pressure, baseline pRNFL thickness, baseline mGCIPL thickness, and systemic hypertension were associated with location of first progression. Eyes demonstrating earliest longitudinal progression on mGCIPL had significantly lower maximum-recorded pretreatment IOP (mean difference, 3.90 mmHg; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.37-5.43 mmHg; P < 0.001). The interval between progression on pRNFL and progression on mGCIPL increased by 12.4 months for every 5-mmHg increase in IOP (95% CI, 10.32-15.72 months). Eyes demonstrating earliest longitudinal progression on mGCIPL showed significantly lower baseline average pRNFL thickness than eyes progressing on pRNFL first (mean difference, 7.07 μm; 95% CI, 4.38-9.77 μm; P < 0.001). Eyes progressing first on mGCIPL parameters were 3.03 times more likely to demonstrate a new paracentral field defect than eyes progressing first on pRNFL parameters (odds ratio, 3.03; 95% CI, 1.26-7.28; P = 0.01)., Conclusions: Clinical features, particularly pretreatment IOP, influence whether structural glaucoma progression is detected earlier with mGCIPL or pRNFL imaging. These data support the usefulness of mGCIPL imaging in addition to pRNFL analysis for detection of glaucoma progression, particularly in patients with normal IOP., (Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)