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Eye
Drops
Delay Onset of Glaucoma in People at Higher Risk
New
Findings Could Help Prevent the Disease
New York (July 2002) -- Researchers
at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary have discovered that eye drops used to
treat elevated pressure inside the eye can be effective in delaying the onset
of glaucoma. These results mean
that treating people at higher risk for developing glaucoma may delay – and
possibly prevent – the disease.
“This study changes the way doctors are going to treat patients,”
said Jeffrey
Liebmann, M.D., Associate Director of the Glaucoma service at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, and a lead investigator in the multi-institutional study sponsored
by the National Eye Institute. “It
improves the likelihood of vision for many.”
The
findings were published in the June 2002 issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology. The
study shows that lowering the pressure of normal fluid inside the eye can cut
the risk of developing the most common form of glaucoma, open angle glaucoma,
by more than 50 percent.
Researchers
noted that 4.4 percent of the study participants who received the eye drops
developed glaucoma within five years. By
comparison, 9.5 percent of the study participants who did not receive the eye
drops developed glaucoma.
The study, called the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study, examined 1,636
people 40-80 years of age, all of whom had elevated eye pressure but no signs
of glaucoma.
Open-angle glaucoma affects about 2.2 million Americans age 40 and
over; but another two million may have the disease and don’t know it.
For more information about
the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study,
please visit Washington University's
website.
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