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Glaucoma risk assessment may be more useful if modifiable risk factors are identified
New York — Risk assessment for glaucoma would be more valuable to ophthalmologists if more modifiable risk factors are identified, a researcher said here at the East Coast Glaucoma Symposium. It is also important to relay to the public a relevant and understandable final consequence of the disease — namely blindness.
M. Roy Wilson, MD, MS, chancellor of the University of Colorado-Denver, spoke on the helpfulness of further developing a set of risk factors for glaucoma. He said other assessments, such as the risk assessment protocol for cardiovascular disease, have proved to be clinically helpful.
“There’s no question that using these risk factor calculators can improve patient care. However, the value of the risk assessment is influenced by the deleterious consequences of the developing disease or the disease progression,” Dr. Wilson said. “We have to consider the consequences of not preventing the disease or disease progression vs. the consequences of treatment.”
Dr. Wilson suggested additions to glaucoma risk assessment, such as lifelong studies to quantify lifetime risk data and global risk assessment to improve management decisions and patient care. However, he added that although risk assessment could serve as a valuable tool, it is not conducive to compare it with risk assessments for other diseases.
“Glaucoma risk assessment, I think, is evolving. I think it’s useful in some cases. However, it’s never going to be the same as cardiovascular risk assessment, simply because the nature of the disease is different. And not because the information we have, the data we have, is not as robust. I think we’ll have more data, but that’s not the issue. The issue is the nature of the disease,” he said.
Source: Ocular Surgery News