Healthy eyesight is very important and you don’t realize it until you begin to lose it. It’s important to visit the ophthalmologist regularly. During your visit, your doctor will perform a Tonometry test. If you wear contacts or some type of corrective lenses, this test is performed at your yearly eye exam. January is the recognized as National Glaucoma Awareness Month and it is promoted by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and National Eye Institute.
Glaucoma doesn’t really have many symptoms and that is why it is considered to be a silent disease. It can result in irreversible blindness. Millions of Americans have the disease, and the National Eye Institute believes that there will be an increase of at least 58% making it 4.25 million dealing with glaucoma in the coming years. While many do not notice the deteriorating eyesight as it is progressing, so 40% of the eye sight is gone by the time it is diagnosis. This is one of the main reasons for vision loss around the world.
Variants of Glaucoma
Glaucoma comes in two different forms: angle-closure and primary open-angle glaucoma. These are detected by the eye pressure, also known as the IOP or intraocular pressure. In case, the optic nerve is damaged but the IOP is normal, it is known as normal tension glaucoma. The second type of glaucoma occurs when another disease has contributed to the increased IOP and damages the optic nerve leading to blindness. In many cases, an individual will not pay too much attention to the changes of glaucoma however eventually, it will make a move so bold, the individual will not help but notice and will need to see their eye doctor for further diagnosis.
Glaucoma Diagnosis
Eye specialists can monitor changes of the optic nerve through diagnostic imaging. Although there are many specialized imaging techniques for looking at the optic nerve the main ones include:
- Optical coherence tomography, or OCT – A non-invasive imaging test which takes numerous cross-section images of the retina utilizing the waves of light to map as well as measure the layer thickness
- Confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope – It is used in imaging of the retina.
- Scanning laser polarimetry, or GDx – The use of polarized light to measure the thickness of the fibers in the retinal nerve.
- Stereo optic nerve photographs – Allows documentation of the research optic nerve and can benefit many clinical studies.
Because January is Glaucoma Awareness Month, you may want to use this reminder to schedule your eye appointment. If you would like more information on imaging procedures or learn more about glaucoma, contact Vital Imaging today at 305-596-9992 to find out all you need to know.