Since the causes of glaucoma are not yet known, it is not yet clear how to cure the disease. On the other hand, when glaucoma is detected sufficiently early, it is possible to put a brake on its development and prevent it from worsening.
Unfortunately, like the disease without noise, that is, painless and without real symptoms, many patients are often not diagnosed until they have lost a large part of their sight. “Early detection is the key to treating glaucoma. But most people who have it are totally unaware of it. This is why glaucoma is called the sight thief, ”explains Professor Andrew Iwach of the San Francisco Glaucoma Treatment Center.
Also, many researchers are now working on the possibility of detecting the disease even before it occurs. This is the case of Australian researchers who have just presented a test which makes it possible, from measurements of the ocular pressure of the retina, to detect people who are four times more likely to develop glaucoma after 45 years.
To achieve this test which has just been published in the professional magazine Ophthalmology, the researchers followed around 2,500 adults over the age of 49 for 10 years. None of them had glaucoma at the start of the study, but those who subsequently developed the disease had higher eye pressure than the others on the first tests.
This is why the researchers believe that the first screening tests should be carried out at age 40, then every two years. “Especially since these eye tests also make it possible to determine whether the patient is not suffering from AMD or from cataract »Insists Professor Iwach.
