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Top-Ten of the Australian and New Zealand Glaucoma Interest Group Meeting

March 9-10, 2007, Adelaide, Australia

Anne Brooks

It was a well-attended meeting with about 110 delegates. The meeting included two highly successful sessions of case presentations, as well as the Gillies Lecture, delivered this year by Jamie Craig of Adelaide. He spoke on 'Crystal-Ball Gazing: Will genetics help us predict the risk of glaucoma blindness?' The invited international speaker was Paul Foster of London, UK. The Top-Ten papers were:

1. In gonioscopy it is important to use a narrow short beam, with identification of the corneoscleral wedge and examination in the dark in order to maximize diagnostic sensitivity.
2. In Meiktila, Burma, persons with occludable angles had significantly shorter axial lengths, Anterior Chamber Depths (ACD) and thicker lenses than those without occludable angles, and in multivariate analyses, increasing age, decreasing axial length, decreasing ACD and nuclear cataract were significant predictors of occludability.
3. Mice that lack a functional FP receptor permit investigation into the role of this receptor in the ocular response to topical prostaglandin analogues. Further to previous studies that demonstrated a critical role for the FP receptor in IOP reduction following administration of topical PGs in the mouse eye, MMP 2, 3 and 9 upregulation in mouse sclera also requires a functional FP receptor.
4. It is most important not to perform a trabeculectomy in a phakic nanophthalmic eye unless there is a very good reason.
5. The timing of facial laser in patients with Sturge Weber Syndrome does not appear to alter the risk for the development of glaucoma.
6. In patients with established optic neuropathy, the Stratus OCT RNFL normative database performs better than the HRTII MRA, and is comparable to the HRTIII MRA in detecting advanced glaucoma.
7. Disc size measurement, when compared prospectively by two clinicians, using the slit lamp with 78D lens or the Direct Ophthalmoscope using the 5 degree spot, show similar accuracy for an experienced observer. The slit-lamp method however, was better in the hands of the less experienced observer.
8. Using anterior segment OCT, the height of the iris plane is found to be more anterior in older Caucasian population and iridotrabecular contact is best assessed when the pupil is dilated in the dark. Iridotrabecular contact was found in 75% of newly diagnosed ocular hypertensive or glaucoma patients.
9. Most swimming goggles generate a significant and sustained rise in IOP over 20 minutes of up to 9mmHg (p < 0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis, demonstrated that smaller goggle area (p = 0.013), was associated with greater IOP elevation.
10. Creatine provided neuroprotection against glutamate-induced retinal mitochondrial dysfunction in rat retinal cell cultures.