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Top-Eleven of the Asia-ARVO Glaucoma Meeting

March 2-5, 2007, Singapore

Tin Aung

1. Ten percent of southern Chinese persons 50 years of age and older from the Liwan Eye study had narrow angles. PAS were present in 20.5% of them. Older age and female gender were risk factors for the presence of narrow angles.

2. The E50K mutant of the optineurin gene induces cell death selectively in retinal ganglion cells that is mediated by oxidative stress. Since cell death was inhibited by antioxidants N-acetyl cysteine and Trolox, and by the free radical scavenger superoxide dismutase, the findings raise the possibility of the use of antioxidants for delaying or controlling some forms of glaucoma.

3. A genome-wide screen using over 5000 markers was performed on 142 multiplex Caucasian and African American families with POAG. Multipoint linkage scores for loci on chromosome 3, 14 and 15 loci were primarily obtained from the African-American subset while a locus on chromosome 12 locus was derived from the Caucasian subset. Contributions by both racial subsets contributed to loci on chromosomes 6 and 17.These findings suggest that different genetic loci may explain in part variations in the prevalence and phenotype of POAG among races described in population-based studies.

4. 17-beta-estradiol effectively slows the progression of IOP elevation and reduces retinal ganglion cell loss in DBA/2J mice with pigmentary glaucoma, and suggests the possible involvement of estrogen-mediated retinal ganglion cell protection.

5. A study of gene expression of human fetal retinal ganglion cells during early eye development identified differentially regulated genes from between week 8 and week 14 that may represent genes that contribute to survival and differentiation of human RGCs.

6. After 3 months of treatment, latanoprost (used as adjunctive therapy) increases the expression of HLA-DR in conjunctival epithelial cells, raising the possibility of subclinical inflammation of the conjunctiva.

7. A study of selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) in 45 eyes of 33 patients with primary angle closure glaucoma (with a patent peripheral iridotomy and at least 90 degrees of open angle) showed that SLT was a safe and effective method of reducing IOP in the short term.

8. A study in Mongolia evaluated progression of lens opacities 6 years after prophylactic laser iridotomy for angle closure. Progression of Nuclear Opacity was identified in 14.6%, Nuclear Colour in 14.4%, Cortical Lens Opacity in 23.4% and Posterior subcapsular lens opacity in 3.4%. However, in a multivariate analysis, adjusting for age and baseline Shaffer grading, this association between iridotomy and progression of any lens opacity was not significant.

9. In a population based study of 3850 subjects in South India, 1% of the subjects were found to have glaucoma associated with aphakia/pseudophakia. 20% of aphakic and 4.3% of pseudophakic eyes were blind due to glaucoma, indicating that glaucoma was a significant cause of morbidity in those who had undergone cataract surgery.

10. Using ultrasound biomicroscopy, almost one third of primary angle closure suspects were found to have plateau iris con-figuration, suggesting the importance of non pupil block me-chanisms in such patients.

11. A new interactive, 3-dimensional rendering and measuring system developed for ultrahigh resolution OCT that uses software ray tracing algorithms will greatly improve our ability to image the retina.