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Abstract #5153 Published in IGR 1-2
Family history of glaucoma in the primary and secondary open-angle glaucomas
Budde WM; Jonas JBGraefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology 1999; 237: 554-557
BACKGROUND: A study was carried out to evaluate the frequency of a positive family history in the primary and secondary open-angle glaucomas. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included 1176 patients with chronic open-angle glaucoma who were differentiated into secondary open-angle glaucoma pseudoexfoliative glaucoma (n = 144) and pigmentary glaucoma (n = 61)], and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG; n = 971). The POAG group was divided into non-highly-myopic patients without ('non-highly-myopic POAG' n = 662) or with circular parapapillary atrophy ('age-related atrophic POAG'; n = 168), highly myopic POAG (n = 35), and focal normal-pressure glaucoma (n = 106). All patients were asked whether family members had glaucoma. RESULTS: In the POAG group, frequency of a positive family history of glaucoma (overall frequency 24.5%) decreased significantly with age from 35.8% in patients (n = 240) younger than 50 years, to 25% in patients (n = 501) aged between 51 and 70 years and to 11.7% in patients (n = 230) older than 70 years. The overall frequencies of a positive family history of glaucoma did not vary significantly between age-related atrophic POAG, focal normal-pressure glaucoma, pseudoexfoliative glaucoma, and pigmentary glaucoma, compared with age-matched groups of non-highly-myopic POAG. Highly myopic POAG had a lower, but not significantly lower, frequency of a positive family history of glaucoma (17.1% vs 26.9%). CONCLUSIONS: In POAG, frequency of a known positive family history of glaucoma decreases with increasing age. Apart from juvenile-onset POAG with a relatively high, and highly myopic POAG with a relatively low frequency of known heredity, other primary and secondary open-angle glaucomas do not show pronounced differences in this variable when adjusted for age.
W.M. Budde, Department of Ophthalmology, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nurnberg, Schwabachanlage 6, D-91054 Erlangen; Germany
Classification:
1.2 Population genetics (Part of: 1 General aspects)