Headache in normal-tension glaucoma patients.

Headache with or without features of migraine has been reported to be a risk factor for normal-tension glaucoma (NTG). However, it is not known whether the linkage between headache and the glaucomatous disease is independent of intraocular pressure (IOP). The purpose of this study was to compare the IOP of a group of NTG patients with headache and the IOP of a group of NTG patients without headache. The mean IOP was compared for 14 persons with and nine persons without headache in a group of 23 NTG patients. An analogous comparison was done between 13 persons with and 10 persons without headache in a group of 23 nonglaucomatous controls. Glaucoma patients and nonglaucomatous controls were uniform with regard to sex, age, and mean IOP. In NTG patients, however, those with headache had a significantly lower mean IOP than did those without headache (p = 0.0004) despite a comparable glaucomatous visual-field damage. Such a difference did not occur in nonglaucomatous patients. Headache seems to define a particular population among NTG patients.