Ginkgo Biloba and Ocular Blood Flow in Primary Open-angle Glaucoma

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2014-02-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness. Ginkgo biloba may be part of an effective treatment strategy for glaucoma because it has been shown to improve blood flow, it has antioxidant properties, it can relax smooth muscle, and it can protect neurons from damage. The goal of our study was to determine whether Ginkgo biloba would result in increased ocular blood flow which may protect against glaucoma damage.

• Phase: Phase 2
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• We focused this trial on vasospastic glaucoma patients because we believed that these would be the patients most likely to benefit from the ability of Ginkgo to improve blood flow.

• Patients who had been identified from previous research as being vasospastic on the Transonic Laser Doppler Flowmeter (Transonic Systems Inc., Ithaca, NY) were contacted and asked if they would like to participate in the trial.

• We recruited vasospastic patients with early or moderate primary open-angle glaucoma with a typical visual field defect with an abnormal Glaucoma Hemifield Test and a Mean Deviation worse than -2 decibels, and an optic nerve head showing retinal nerve fiber layer or neuroretinal rim loss characteristic of glaucoma.

• There was no restriction for intraocular pressure at time of diagnosis although at the time of recruitment intraocular pressure had to be effectively controlled either by ocular hypertension therapy or by surgery.

• If a patient had two eyes eligible, data from the right eye only was used.

Exclusion Criteria:

• those taking anticoagulant therapy,

• those with blood disorders or diabetes,

• women who were pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or who were breast-feeding,

• patients with a history of seizures or who were currently taking anti-convulsant medication, and

• those who could not return for 2 follow-up visits at 4 and 6 weeks.

• those patients who are already taking Ginkgo were asked if they were willing to stop for 6 weeks before the study.