The association between structure-function relationships and cognitive impairment in elderly glaucoma patients

Accurate measurement of visual field (VF) is important in accessing glaucoma, however this may not be achieved in patients with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (CI). We investigated the association between CI and structure-function relationships in elderly glaucoma patients. The study included 94 eyes of 51 glaucoma patients aged ≥75 years with no diagnoses of dementia. CI was assessed using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Using the leave-one-out cross-validation, the mean deviation (MD) of the Humphrey 30-2 VF was predicted from measurements of optical coherence tomography, and the relationship between the squared prediction error and the MMSE score, together with age, fixation loss (FL), false positive (FP), and false negative (FN) percentages that were analyzed using the linear mixed model. A high prevalence of MCI or dementia was observed in the elderly population. The squared prediction error value of the MD was 17.0 ± 21.1 (mean ± standard deviation). The squared prediction error increased with decreasing MMSE total score, but age, FL, FP, and FN were not related. Careful consideration is needed when interpreting the VF results of these patients, because VF can be over- or underestimated, as suggested by the decreased structure-function relationships.