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Abstract #15980 Published in IGR 2-3
Report does not show that there is no relationship between disc appearance and sensitivity to intraocular pressure (letter)
Spaeth GLArchives of Ophthalmology 2000; 18: 1465-6
In this letter the corresponding author comments on a paper by Iester and Mikelberg on morphometric parameters in High Tension Glaucoma and Normal Tension Glaucoma measured with a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope. The original authors concluded that they could not find any morphometric differences between the two types of glaucoma. The corresponding author feels that comparing patients with HTG to those of LTG actually compares one heterogeneous group of conditions with another heterogeneous group. There is no doubt that there is a variety of patterns of damage in glaucoma. This variety of disc patterns occurs in patients with high pressures and in patients with low pressures. Nevertheless focal changes appear to be far more common in patients with lower pressures and concentric changes are far more common in patients with elevated pressures. Of 13 parameters described by the Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph only one is roughly a measure of whether this disc damage is focal or generalized. The corresponding author states that it would not be expected that the Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph would be able to determine which change was limited to a particular area of the disc. The HRT present software is not developed for that purpose. He therefor feels that the conclusions of the original author are not warranted. The results of the original authors do not exclude that certain types of disc may well be more sensitive to the damaging effects of IOP than other types of discs.
Classification:
9.2.2 Other risk factors for glaucoma (Part of: 9 Clinical forms of glaucomas > 9.2 Primary open angle glaucomas)
