High Polygenic Risk Is Associated with Earlier Trabeculectomy in Patients with Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Glaucoma; Open-angle glaucoma; Polygenic risk score; Risk stratification; Trabeculectomy.