Glaucoma Screening
Glaucoma is a disease resulting in progressive damage to the nerve fibres in the eye. Glaucoma can cause blindness!
This neurodegenerative disease also causes damage to the entire visual pathway, the retinal ganglion cells, their axons, the retinal nerve fibre layer and optic nerve axons. Because the optic nerve is responsible for sending messages from the eyes to the brain, glaucoma results in deterioration of vision. If left untreated glaucoma can eventually result in progressive loss of vision and ultimately blindness. However if caught early glaucoma can be treated so contact Eyecatchers Optometrists today to get your eyes checked.
Risk Factors
Although the cause of glaucoma is not entirely known, scientists have been able to determine risk factors for the disease. There is a greater likelihood that a person will develop glaucoma if they have one or more of the following risk factors:
- Over the age of 40
- Ocular hypertension or raised pressure (IOP) inside the eye
- Family history of glaucoma (Probably the most significant risk factor of all. First degree relatives of glaucoma sufferers, have an eight-fold increased risk of developing glaucoma)
- Short sightedness
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Poor circulation in the hands and feet, known as Raynaud’s Phenomenon
- A history of migraines
- Previous injuries to the eye
- Exposure to steroid preparations like eczema creams
Detection
In addition to our comprehensive eye examination Eyecatchers Optometrists undertakes an early detection glaucoma test by:
- measuring the internal pressure of your eye, the intraocular pressure (IOP)
- measuring corneal thickness in order to recalibrate IOP measurements for accuracy, (Pachymetry)
- measuring your peripheral vision, (Medmont visual field analyser and Zeiss Humphrey Matrix field analyser)
- Observing the health of your optic nerve, (Volk lens binocular slit-lamp biomicroscopy)
- analyse the retinal nerve fibre layer for glaucomatous thinning ( GDxVcc Scanning Laser Polarimetry)
Eyecatchers Optometrists was the first optometry practice in Southland to employ revolutionary scanning laser polarimetry technology (GDxVcc), to improve the early detection rate and accuracy of glaucoma diagnosis. If you have glaucoma the disease can be diagnosed earlier using this technology, and consequently treatment can start much sooner.
If any of the risk factors listed above apply to you, especially a family history of glaucoma, contact Eyecatchers Optometrists today and make an appointment for our comprehensive early detection glaucoma screening test.
Eyecatchers recommends anyone with any of these risk factors has this screening test performed. It is very reassuring for the patients involved, and most importantly it allows us to gather "base level data" for future reference.
Eyecatchers Optometrists Invercargill Practice: 22 Kelvin Street – Ph: 03 218 8561 Gore Practice: 108 Main Street – Ph: 03 208 9244
