Race distribution in non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.

PURPOSE: To describe the racial distribution of patients diagnosed with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) in two large urban academic centers in the United States (US).

DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional study.

METHODS: All NAION patients evaluated between 2014 and 2022 in tertiary neuro-ophthalmology services in Atlanta, GA and New York, NY, respectively, were included. In order to assess the racial accessibility to our services, similar numbers of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) patients seen in the same services were included. Self-reported race at the time of neuro-ophthalmologic examination was collected for all patients. Results were compared with data published by the US Bureau of Census for Decennial Census in 2020 for the states of Georgia and New York, and for the total population of the US.

RESULTS: In both locations, the vast majority of NAION patients reported being White (91.06% in Atlanta and 78.9% in New York). Only 7.27% of patients in Atlanta and 3% in New York reported being Black, and 1.24% of patients in Atlanta and 5.9% in New York reported being Asian. There was a much higher proportion of White people among NAION patients than in the group of IIH patients and in each respective state and in the US.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the majority of NAION patients are White, followed by Black and Asian races, respectively, thus confirming the NAION race distribution reported by past clinical trials.