[How is simplex glaucoma diagnosed?]

Although glaucoma has traditionally been regarded as a disease affecting people over 60 years of age, improved diagnostic methods now enable glaucoma-related changes to be detected already in the 35-40-year-old age group, long before any functional visual changes are present. Since there is no treatment capable of restoring lost visual capacity, the diagnosis should be made and treatment initiated at an early stage before visual deterioration has become manifest. Measurements of intra-ocular pressure and visual acuity provide insufficient guidance, whereas periodic photography of the nerve fibre layer yields early diagnostic information and an indication of the appropriate individual level of intra-ocular pressure to prevent progression of the disease.