REPOST: Common glaucoma drug reduces risk of vision loss

A new study supports the benefits of widely used glaucoma drug. This article has the details.

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A pressure-lowering eye drop has been found to greatly reduce the risk of vision loss in people with open angle glaucoma (OAG), one of the leading causes of blindness.

The trial to assess the vision-preserving effect of prostaglandin analogue eye drop, which is already in common use for treatment of glaucoma, confirmed its efficacy.

"Our findings offer solid proof to patients and practitioners that the visual deterioration caused by glaucoma can be reduced using this treatment," said lead author David Garway-Heath from UCL (University College London) Institute of Ophthalmology.

OAG currently affects around 45 million people worldwide.

Vision loss from glaucoma occurs when the optic nerve is damaged. In most cases, increased pressure inside the eye (intraocular pressure), is thought to contribute to this damage.

"Medication to lower raised eye pressure has been used for decades as the main treatment for OAG to delay progressive vision loss," Garway-Heath explained.

"But, until now, the extent to which the most frequently prescribed class of pressure-lowering drugs (prostaglandin analogues) have a protective effect on vision was not known," Garway-Heath added.

The study recruited 516 newly diagnosed, previously untreated individuals with OAG in Britain.

Half were randomly assigned to daily pressure-lowering eye drops and the other half to a matching placebo.

The risk of visual deterioration was over 50 percent lower in the group treated with daily pressure-lowering eye drops compared to those using placebo drops over 2 years.

The study was published in the journal The Lancet.

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New studies asses patient’s adherence to glaucoma medication

A new study reveals that a fairly large number of patients suffering from glaucoma did not regularly use their prescribed eye drops.

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The research, which was conducted at university-based glaucoma clinic, recruited 407 patients who were undergoing treatment that required daily prostaglandin eye drops. Aimed to measure their medical adherence, the patients were given a container with an electronic cap that recorded each time it was opened.

It was revealed later on that 82.8 percent of the participants took their medication properly on at least 75 percent of days, while the remaining 17.2 percent were not able to adhere to their prescribed medication.

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Furthering the study, the researchers made their second intervention by including text or voice messages to assist the patients with their eye drop medication.

As the experiment concluded, the researchers found that the adherence rate among those who failed to take their medication in the first batch increased from 53 percent to 64 percent.

Although the barriers to patients’ medication adherence were considered complex, the researchers concluded that the inclusion of text or voice messages can help patients adhere to their eye drop medication.

Image source: www.glaucoma.org

Given these results, the researchers noted that telecommunication-based reminders can help patients and doctors track one’s daily glaucoma medications. They further stressed that this latest discovery is essential because it can potentially support today’s ophthalmology practice.

Dr. Hitesh K. Patel is an Edison, New Jersey-based ophthalmologist. Read more about glaucoma and other vision problems at www.pateleyeassociates.com.

REPOST: New eye layer has possible link to glaucoma, study shows

How will the new layer that's discovered in the human eye affect eye diseases like glaucoma? Read the answer from this ScienceDaily.com article.
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A new layer in the human cornea -- discovered by researchers at The University of Nottingham last year -- plays a vital role in the structure of the tissue that controls the flow of fluid from the eye, research has shown.

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The findings, published in a paper in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, could shed new light on glaucoma, a devastating disease caused by defective drainage of fluid from the eye and the world's second leading cause of blindness.

The latest research shows that the new layer, dubbed Dua's Layer after the academic Professor Harminder Dua who discovered it, makes an important contribution to the sieve-like meshwork, the trabecular meshwork (TM), in the periphery of the cornea.

The TM is a wedge-shaped band of tissue that extends along the circumference of the angle of the anterior chamber of the eye. It is made of beams of collagen wrapped in a basement membrane to which trabecular cells and endothelial cells attach. The beams branch out randomly to form a 'meshwork'.

Pressure within the eye is maintained by the balance of aqueous fluid production by eye tissue called the ciliary body and drainage principally through the TM to the canal of Schlemm, a circular channel in the angle of the eye.

Defective drainage through the TM is an important cause of glaucoma, a condition that leads to raised pressure in the eye that can permanently affect sight. Around 1 to 2% of the world's population yearly have chronic glaucoma and globally around 45 million people have open angle glaucoma which can permanently damage the optic nerve -- 10% of whom are blind.

The latest research by Professor Dua and colleagues in Academic Ophthalmology at The University of Nottingham sheds new light on the basic anatomy of Dua's Layer, which is just 15 microns thick but incredibly tough. Comprised of thin plates of collagen, it sits at the back of the cornea between the corneal stroma and Descemet's membrane.

By examining human donor eyes using electron microscopy, the researchers were able to look at Dua's Layer beyond the central part of the cornea to shed more light on its features at the extreme periphery of the cornea. They discovered that the collagen fibres of Dua's Layer also branch out to form a meshwork and that the core of TM is in fact an extension of Dua's Layer.

It is hoped the discovery will offer new clues on why the drainage system malfunctions in the eyes of some people, leading to high pressure.

Professor Dua said: "Many surgeons who perform lamellar corneal transplant recognize this layer as an important part of the surgical anatomy of the cornea. This new finding resulting from a study of the microanatomy of the periphery of the layer could have significance beyond corneal surgery."

The breakthrough discovery of Dua's Layer was first revealed in a paper in the academic journal Ophthalmology in June last year and was widely covered by the world's scientific and lay media. The paper became the number one downloaded ophthalmology paper from the website ScienceDirect between July and September 2013 and was ranked the 11^th most downloaded from the website for the whole of medicine and dentistry.

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Dr. Hitesh K. Patel is the founder of the Edison-based eye center, Patel Eye Associates. Know more about him by following this Twitter account.

Research: Birth control use could increase risk factor for glaucoma

Research shows that long-term birth control use could be a risk factor for glaucoma, a blindness-causing ocular disorder that affects nearly 60 million people worldwide. The study, which was conducted by University of California, San Francisco, Duke University School of Medicine and Third Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China, reveals that females who had used any kind of oral contraceptives for longer than three years are twice as likely to suffer glaucoma.

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The research is the first to establish a connection between long-term birth control use and increased risk of glaucoma. Researchers surveyed 3,406 female participants aged 40 years and older from across the United States using a vision and reproductive health questionnaire and eye exams.

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The researchers advise gynecologists and ophthalmologists to be conscious that oral contraceptives might be a contributing factor in glaucomatous diseases, and that they should inform their patients to have their eyes screened for the blindness-causing disease if have other risk factors. Considered one of the leading causes of blindness, glaucoma is a condition that brings damage to a person’s optic nerve and gets worse over time. It is often associated with a buildup of pressure inside the eye and usually occurs in adults over age 40, but it can also manifest in young adults, children, and even infants.

Image Source: glenmorevisioncenter.com

Ophthalmologist Dr. Hitesh K. Patel of Edison, New Jersey is the founder of Patel Eye Associates, an eye care center that provides treatment and diagnosis of various vision problems such as cataracts, nearsightedness, and astigmatism. Know more about his expertise by visiting this website.