Predicting future glaucoma candidates
Combined analysis of two clinical glaucoma trials, presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting, suggests that it would be beneficial for ophthalmologists to use a five-year risk assessment model to better predict which patients have an increased risk of developing glaucoma.
Combined analysis of two clinical glaucoma trials, presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting, suggests that it would be beneficial for ophthalmologists to use a five-year risk assessment model to better predict which patients have an increased risk of developing glaucoma.
In 2005, Robert Weinreb, MD and Filipe Medeiros, MD, constructed a risk assessment model based on findings from the 2002 Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS). This study found that early intervention with IOP lowering medications could prevent glaucoma in at-risk patients. The OHTS prediction model was then tested on patients in the placebo group of the European Glaucoma Prevention Study (EGPS), a study that enrolled a total of 1081 subjects at 18 European centres to receive either dorzolamide or placebo. The OHTS arm of the study examined 819 subjects with a median follow-up of every six months for 6.6 years. The EGPS placebo group examined 500 subjects with a median follow-up of every six months for 4.8 years. The two study samples were pooled to increase the precision of a five-year predictive model for the development of POAG.
Analysis of the results found that subjects with elevated IOP along with other risk factors such as age (40 years old +), are at the highest risk of developing POAG. The researchers believe that the five-year risk assessment model will dramatically help reduce the number of subjects going on to development this disease.
