Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The primary and only modifiable risk factor for the development of glaucoma is elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), and lowering IOP effectively slows glaucomatous disease progression. Unfortunately, the majority of available treatments do not target, or intentionally bypass, the diseased and stiffened glaucomatous outflow tissues responsible for IOP elevation.
Newly published research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) from Duke researchers suggest that detection of outflow tissue stiffness using noncontact, noninvasive optical coherence tomography, in an animal model of glaucoma, represents a valuable tool for assessing disease status and tissue function. Thus, this new technology has the potential to monitor recently approved treatments targeting the outflow tissues, and to inform glaucoma surgery decisions.
“We are excited about our new technological breakthrough that propels the understanding outflow tissue functional status and how the use of common OCT imaging could help better manage patients with glaucoma,” said W. Daniel Stamer, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology at Duke University School of Medicine, President-Elect of ARVO and corresponding author.