Research on Glaucoma in Children: Grant to Buy Basic Equipment

Project location: ITALY
Project start date: May 2002 - Project end date: May 2003
Project number: 2001-27
Beneficiary: Policlinico Umberto I di Roma Ophthalmologic Sciences

"EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF OCULAR HYDRODYNAMIC DISORDERS IN CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS WHO ARE RELATIVES  OF GLAUCOMATOUS PATIENTS"

2003 Report

We are continuing our epidemiologic research on relatives of  glaucomatous patients with the main goal of increasing the rate of early diagnosis in that population.

At the same time, we have been performing other adjunctive clinical studies on congenital glaucoma, Thygeson keratopathy, and Acantoamoeba keratitis, not included in the above mentioned project, with the purpose to extend as much as possible the use of the instrumentation we were kindly given by Peretti Foundation.

Preliminary results

So far, we have screened approximately 100 subjects, according to the criteria of the study protocol.

The age range was between 5 and 55 years old. We have found out some new cases of glaucoma, previously not detected, and confirmed many cases of glaucoma, previously considered as suspect.

An interim analysis of the data is expected to be performed by the end of May.

As far as the adjunctive clinical studies are concerned, they have already been presented in International Ophthalmological meeting and are going to be published soon.

Conclusion

In our next report we expect to present to you more preliminary results of our research, in particular we suppose that we will be able to complete the analysis on the correlation between corneal thickness, intraocular pressure and risk to develop glaucoma by then.