Glaucoma Screening in Colombian Population

Abstract

Abstract: : Purpose: To present the results of a glaucoma screening program in 40 year-old grown-ups in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Methods: There was carried out the evaluation of 10657 people examined among September 2001 until November 2002. The phase I was carried out taking of intraocular pressure with Tonopen or Perkins, angular evaluation for Van Herick and FDT screening C-20-1 for a technician. The positive patients in the phase I were examined by two fellows of Glaucoma in the phase II with Goldmann tonometer, gonioscopy and evaluation of the optic nerve. The glaucoma diagnosis was carried out based on the clinical evaluation. The data were analyzed with the program STATA 6.0 Results: 10657 patients were evaluated with an average age of 59 years old(SD 11 years) and 73% was women. There were 932 patients with diagnosis of glaucoma (8,7%), 89 patients with ocular hypertension (4.8%) at least in one eye, 1344 (12.6%) with primary closed angles at least in one eye and 1299 (12.2%) in both eyes. 36.86% of the patients had Primary closed angle Glaucoma. Conclusions: The glaucoma frequency in the Colombian population is high especially primary closed angles glaucomas. The screening tests are useful and they should always contemplate the gonioscopic angular evaluation.

Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: pre • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: sys