Usefulness of peripheral anterior chamber depth assessment in glaucoma screening

This study was conducted to determine the usefulness of peripheral anterior chamber depth assessment in angle-closure glaucoma (ACG) screening in Japanese subjects.

The subjects were 14,779 adults 40 years old or older. Eyes having peripheral anterior chamber depth that is 1/4 the peripheral corneal thickness (van Herick's classification: grade 2) and less than 1/4 the peripheral corneal thickness (van Herick's classification: grade 1) were extracted as narrow angle eyes, and those eyes were further examined.

Of 14,779 subjects, 923 eyes of 505 subjects were diagnosed as narrow angle eyes (3.4%). Narrow angle eyes were observed in 4.9% of female subjects and 1.9% of male subjects, indicating a significantly higher frequency in women. The percentage of narrow angle eyes increased with age. Among the narrow angle eyes, 61 eyes of 32 subjects were diagnosed with ACG suspect (6.5%). In contrast to the frequency of ACG suspect in eyes classified as grade 1, according to van Herick's classification, being 17.9%, that in eyes classified as grade 2 was significantly lower at 5.6%.

Since the incidence of ACG suspect increases as the peripheral anterior chamber depth decreases, caution for the peripheral anterior chamber depth is required for the ACG screening.