A large-scale Taiwanese study has found patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) have an almost 30% increased risk of having tinnitus, compared to those without POAG.
Led by Assistant Professor Tung-Mei Kuang, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, researchers used the data of 2,170,728 predominantly Han-Chinese patients from Taiwanese health insurance databases. Discussing their findings, researchers cited an Italian study demonstrating an 85% increase in odds for tinnitus in glaucoma patients, and another which reported 19% higher odds for tinnitus risk with POAG. However, those studies’ research design was in the reverse direction from theirs, which compared the prevalence of pre-existing POAG between patients with and without tinnitus, they said.
The authors concluded that ophthalmologists should be aware of this association and further studies are needed to understand underlying mechanisms.
