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Selection from the 14th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Glaucoma Society
September 5-7, 2003, Tokyo, Japan
Makoto Araie
At the 14th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Glaucoma Society (JGS), the Professor Suda Memorial Lecture was given by Yasuaki Kuwayama, MD (Osaka Kosei Nenkin Hospital), together with a special lecture by Professor Hiroyuki Shimizu (Gifu University), and an invited lecture by Professor Martin Wax (Washington University). There were six symposia and eight luncheon seminars, as well as 63 free papers and 110 poster presentations at this annual meeting, which attracted more than 1600 participants. Moreover, this annual meeting was given the chance to hold the WGA (IGR) award ceremony, which was attended by many guests, including Professor Shu Narumiya from Kyoto University who gave a special lecture on the function of small G protein Rho.
- Dr. T. Yamamoto summarized the results of the Tajimi Glaucoma Epidemiological Study, which covered many issues on the management of glaucoma in Japan, as well as various interesting characteristics of glaucoma in Japan. In 3021 Japanese citizens from Tajimi City (78.1% of 4000 randomly selected Japanese citizens aged over 40 years), the prevalence of glaucoma was 5.8% (5.0-6.6%, 95% CI). The prevalence of open-angle glaucoma with normal intraocular pressure was much higher than that with elevated pressure. Interestingly, the prevalence of primary angle-closure glaucoma in this study was lower than that reported in both rural Taiwan and Mongolia.
- Dr. T. Yano found new autoimmune antigens in glaucoma patients using the SEREX method. Neurofilament and Wave3 protein were identified as candidates for autoimmune antigens. Antibodies for neurofilament light subunits were found in 12 of 65 glaucoma patients, but in four of 69 age-matched normals (p < 0.05).
- Dr. H. Takahashi described the incidence of intra- and postoperative intracameral bleeding by viscocanalostomy. Eighty-one eyes of patients with open-angle glaucoma underwent viscocanalostomy and PEA + IOL, and intraoperative intracameral bleeding and postoperative hyphema were encountered in 27 and 43% of eyes, respectively.'
- Dr. T. Yamamoto presented the incidence of disc hemorrhage (DH) in 14,431 (28,396 eyes) Japanese patients aged over 40 years. DH was present in 89 cases (0.62%) and 93 eyes (0.33%). Twenty-two of these cases were male and 67 female, and 65 cases (68 eyes) were glaucomatous and 24 (25 eyes) normal. The incidence became higher with age. DH was most frequently seen in the temporal superior and temporal inferior positions of the optic disc. These data intimate the characteristics of DH in Japanese.
- Dr. K. Maruyama compared the IOP-lowering effect of dorzoramide 1.0% and carteolol 2% when added to latanoprost. Either dorzoramide or carteolol was added to latanoprost in both eyes of 24 open-angle glaucoma patients for three months in a randomized, parallel group design. No significant difference in IOP-lowering effect was seen between dorzoramide and carteolol when they were added to latanoprost.
- Dr. S. Otani studied the IOP-lowering effect of switching from dorzoramide to brinzoramide in 24 open-angle glaucoma patients who had been treated by latanoprost, carteolol, and dorzoramide. In 24 eyes of 24 patients, 12 randomly selected eyes were continuously treated by latanoprost, carteolol and dorzoramide, and in the other 12 eyes dorzolamide was substituted by brinzoramide. During the three-month study period, no significant inter-group difference in IOP was seen. In interviews, patients revealed that twice-daily brinzoramide was preferable to dorzoramide three times daily.
- Drs. M. Aihara and F. Mabuchi presented a mouse glaucoma model and showed its high potential in glaucoma research. They introduced laser-induced ocular hypertension and observed the optic nerve damage that followed in mice eyes. Additionally, Dr. M. Aihara found spontaneous ocular hypertension in collagen I alpha filament mutant mice, in which the mutated MMP-1 cleavage site leads to the accumulation of collagen I.
- Drs. H. Akiyama and T. Nakazawa reported that neuro-glial interaction via MAPK may operate as one of the neuroprotective signals in a rat optic nerve clipping model. After transient ischemia, MAPK activation was observed in Müller cells and the inhibition of MAPK phosphorylation partially exacerbated ganglion cell death.Using a rat ocular hypertension model, Dr. M. Nakamura found that diabetes mellitus (DM) can be a risk factor for the development of glaucoma. Apoptotic cell death by ocular hypertension was compared between normal and streptomycin-induced DM rats. DM rats showed significantly more apoptotic cell death.
- Dr. H. Oku reported on the neuroprotective effect of adenosine, which was eliminated by adenosine A1 receptor-antagonists in a rabbit model. Moreover, other A1 receptor agonists were found to partially suppress NMDA-induced neuronal cell death.