The early detection of glaucoma in general practice

Glaucoma is one of the most common preventable causes of visual loss. Because it is an asymptomatic condition until late in the process only 50% of the population with glaucoma are aware they have it. Primary care physicians rarely test their patients for glaucoma, primarily because of the lack of specificity or sensitivity of any one particular test.

To determine if it was possible to identify patients with early signs of glaucoma from within my own practice, in patients who had not previously been tested for glaucoma or had not been tested for at least two years.

This study has shown that glaucoma case-finding is feasible in general practice. Direct ophthalmoscopy proved to be the most valuable single test in diagnosing glaucoma and the combination of measurement of intraocular pressure and direct ophthalmoscopy was shown to be the most likely method of diagnosing glaucoma or identifying glaucoma suspects.