GLAUCOMA
Glaucoma is an eye disease affecting the optic nerve. According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, half of people with the disease are unaware that they have it. Glaucomatous vision loss usually begins peripherally and progresses centrally, so a surprising amount of vision may be compromised before such loss is even noticed. Vision loss associate with glaucoma is permanent and irreversible.
Risk factors for glaucoma include elevated eye pressure, family history, age, ethnicity, suspicious optic nerve appearance, and various medical conditions. Important diagnostic tools, including optic nerve analysis, measurements of eye pressure, peripheral vision or visual field tests, and measurements of corneal thickness.
Because of the irreversible nature of vision loss related with glaucoma, it is imperative to catch glaucoma in its early states. Technological advances allow us to detect glaucoma earlier, even before vision loss begins. Once diagnosed, treatment involves procedures to reduce eye pressure and protect the optic nerve. Depending on type and severity of glaucoma, those treatments can include medications and/or surgery.
We are dedicated to the early detection and investigation of glaucoma. Eye pressure is the biggest risk factor for this disease, however many people with normal pressures can have glaucoma. Misunderstood by many, glaucoma can occur at any age, even at birth. Glaucoma typically cannot be prevented, but once diagnosed it must be treated, the earlier the better. Early detection is of utmost importance as vision loss to glaucoma cannot be restored.
There are many subtypes of glaucoma some of which are classified by the pathophysiology of the condition, although the most common is called primary chronic open angle glaucoma where the cause is unknown. All glaucoma is irreversible. The diagnosis and management of glaucoma relys on identifying the functional visual loss (measured by standard automated perimetry) along with the structural defects or damage in the optic nerve or retinal nerve fiber layer. When there is structural damage of nerve fiber ganglions cell there is direct affect on those nerves visual function. In the clinical setting, although this topic is still under some debate, most clinicians believe that we are typically only able to measure functional vision loss after the structural loss of a large amount of retinal ganglion cells.
One way to view the course of early glaucoma is to characterize it into three phases. 1. undetectable disease 2. asymptomatic disease 3. functional impairment. This is the most common way glaucoma progresses although there have been a few cases where functional loss has been noted to precede detectable structural change. Traditionally prior to computerized imaging, most clinicians were more definitive with their diagnosis of glaucoma in phase three, that is when irreversible functional vision was lost. However, with recent advancement in technology, we are able to be strongly suspicious of glaucoma as early as phase two, and be more certain with the diagnosis when we can correlate both structural and functional vision loss.
Risk factors for glaucoma include elevated eye pressure, family history, age, ethnicity, suspicious optic nerve appearance, and various medical conditions. Important diagnostic tools, including optic nerve analysis, measurements of eye pressure, peripheral vision or visual field tests, and measurements of corneal thickness.
Because of the irreversible nature of vision loss related with glaucoma, it is imperative to catch glaucoma in its early states. Technological advances allow us to detect glaucoma earlier, even before vision loss begins. Once diagnosed, treatment involves procedures to reduce eye pressure and protect the optic nerve. Depending on type and severity of glaucoma, those treatments can include medications and/or surgery.
We are dedicated to the early detection and investigation of glaucoma. Eye pressure is the biggest risk factor for this disease, however many people with normal pressures can have glaucoma. Misunderstood by many, glaucoma can occur at any age, even at birth. Glaucoma typically cannot be prevented, but once diagnosed it must be treated, the earlier the better. Early detection is of utmost importance as vision loss to glaucoma cannot be restored.
There are many subtypes of glaucoma some of which are classified by the pathophysiology of the condition, although the most common is called primary chronic open angle glaucoma where the cause is unknown. All glaucoma is irreversible. The diagnosis and management of glaucoma relys on identifying the functional visual loss (measured by standard automated perimetry) along with the structural defects or damage in the optic nerve or retinal nerve fiber layer. When there is structural damage of nerve fiber ganglions cell there is direct affect on those nerves visual function. In the clinical setting, although this topic is still under some debate, most clinicians believe that we are typically only able to measure functional vision loss after the structural loss of a large amount of retinal ganglion cells.
One way to view the course of early glaucoma is to characterize it into three phases. 1. undetectable disease 2. asymptomatic disease 3. functional impairment. This is the most common way glaucoma progresses although there have been a few cases where functional loss has been noted to precede detectable structural change. Traditionally prior to computerized imaging, most clinicians were more definitive with their diagnosis of glaucoma in phase three, that is when irreversible functional vision was lost. However, with recent advancement in technology, we are able to be strongly suspicious of glaucoma as early as phase two, and be more certain with the diagnosis when we can correlate both structural and functional vision loss.
