June 2017
Volume 58, Issue 8
Open Access
ARVO Annual Meeting Abstract  |   June 2017
Unexpectedly High Prevalence of Glaucoma in Germany: Results from the Gutenberg Health Study
Author Affiliations & Notes
  • Rene Hoehn
    Ophthalmology, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
    Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Stefan Nickels
    Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Alexander Karl-Georg Schuster
    Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Philipp S Wild
    Preventive Cardiology and Preventive Medicine / Center for Cardiology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
    Center for Thrombosis and Hemostasis (CTH), University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Thomas Münzel
    Center for Cardiology I, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Karl J Lackner
    Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Maria Blettner
    Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Manfred E Beutel
    Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Norbert Pfeiffer
    Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Footnotes
    Commercial Relationships   Rene Hoehn, None; Stefan Nickels, None; Alexander Schuster, None; Philipp Wild, None; Thomas Münzel, None; Karl Lackner, None; Maria Blettner, None; Manfred Beutel, None; Norbert Pfeiffer, None
  • Footnotes
    Support  None
Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science June 2017, Vol.58, 5607. doi:
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      Rene Hoehn, Stefan Nickels, Alexander Karl-Georg Schuster, Philipp S Wild, Thomas Münzel, Karl J Lackner, Maria Blettner, Manfred E Beutel, Norbert Pfeiffer; Unexpectedly High Prevalence of Glaucoma in Germany: Results from the Gutenberg Health Study. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2017;58(8):5607.

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      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

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Abstract

Purpose : To determine the prevalence of open-angle glaucoma (OAG) according to the ISGEO classification in an adult European cohort.

Methods : The Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) is a population-based, prospective, observational cohort study in the Rhine-Main Region in mid-western Germany with a total of 15,010 participants. In this study, the first 5,000 subjects with an age range between 35 and 74 years were included. At baseline, participants underwent a standardized protocol with a general cardiovascular and ophthalmic examination, which included slitlamp biomicroscopy, non-contact tonometry, fundus photography, central corneal thickness measurement and visual field testing. Optic disc pictures were obtained by a non-mydriatic fundus camera (Visucam™) and analyzed using the Visupac™ software. The prevalence was determined in two steps. First, the ISGEO classification was applied using “hypernormal subjects” (normal visual function) as reference. In the second analysis, we additionally considered the disc area (DA) dependency of the vertical cup-to-disc ratio by a quantile regression.

Results : The overall prevalence of definite OAG in our sample was 1.6% (n=79). The disc area adjusted prevalence was 1.5% (n=74). The prevalence gradually increased in both models with every age decade (0.8% to 2.4%, respectively). In both models none of the glaucoma cases had a small optic disc (<1.6 mm2). For medium and large optic discs there was a significant prevalence difference, whether disc area was considered or not. The prevalence in medium optic discs was 1.2% vs. 1.8% and in large optic discs 5.7% vs. 2.5%, respectively, applying the non-adjusted vs. the DA adjusted classification.

Conclusions : Prevalence of definite glaucoma was higher than in most other Caucasian population-based cohorts, although our sample was the youngest cohort so far. In addition, our analysis underlined the crucial influence of optic disc size in determining the diagnosis of glaucoma.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.

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