Abstract
Purpose: :
To identify the relative frequency, age, bilaterality and gender of the different glaucoma diagnoses in outpatients from 4 urban hospitals in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Methods: :
718 patients under glaucoma care in 4 hospitals in Buenos Aires in September through November 2007 were included in this cross-sectional study. Patients underwent interview and complete glaucoma examination. Demographic and clinical data useful for this first report were processed.
Results: :
Average age was 62,24 ± 14 years. 42,76% were male. 78 were glaucoma suspects (10.86%). In the 640 patients with confirmed glaucoma the most frequent ethiology was POAG with 304 patients (47,5%). Other causes: glaucoma associated with pseudoexfoliation (PXEG) in 116 (18,13%), PCAG in 73 (11.5%), neovascular glaucoma (NVG) in 37 (5,78%), juvenile in 17 (2,66%), acute angle closure in 17 (2,66%), inflammatory in 15 (2,34%), traumatic in 15 (2,34%), postsurgical in 10 (1,56%) congenital glaucoma in 9 patients (1,41%), pigmentary in 4 (0,63%), lens-induced in 2 (0,31%) and other: 3.18%.Mean oldest age was found in PXEG (70.20 ± 9.57 ys) followed by acute PCAG (67.65 ± 12.13 ys), NVG (65.78 ± -9.58ys), chronic PCAG (65.34 ± 9.98 ys) and POAG (65.13 ± 10 ys) and then by pigmentary glaucoma (56.5 ± 20.53ys) and inflammatory glaucoma (52.4 ±17ys). Youngest ages, in traumatic (39 ± 16.23ys) and congenital (28.33 ± 13 ys).Bilateral glaucoma was found in 632 patients (88.02%): 100% of congenital glaucoma, 95.89% of PCAG, 94.12% of juvenile glaucoma, 92.43% of POAG and 92.24% of PXEG. Unilaterality prevailed in traumatic glaucoma (93.33%) and showed interesting figures in NVG (37.84%), acute PCAG (33.39%) and in uveitic glaucoma (26.67%). Gender was predominantly female in acute PCAG (64.71%), in POAG (61.84%, and in chronic PCAG (64%), predominantly male in traumatic (100%), juvenile (88.24%), pigmentary (75%) and congenital (66.67%). No significant gender differences were found in the others.
Conclusions: :
There was a high frequency of PXEG, which confirms previous data from smaller Argentine studies. POAG was much more frequent among women. Although the collected data may not exactly reflect what happens in the general population it depicts a previously unknown reality. This is to our knowledge the first local study of its kind.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence