Primary angle-closure glaucoma and mononuclear blindness. Clinical pattern in 2 Inuit women from Greenland

Primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) occurs in various clinical forms and is a permanent challenge for medical personnel responsible for eye care in elderly persons, for medical officers in the Arctic in particular. A clinical report is given of two cases: one with a destructive attack of classical acute glaucoma in a 46 year old woman versus another with a totally symptomless, gradual monocular blindness in a woman, aged 56. In both patients the fellow eye showed incipient chamber angle synechia formation. Peripheral iridectomy has given fully normal fellow eye function in the first woman, now for 22 years. The other had a recent YAG laser iridotomy in her fellow eye. The patients are described on the background of PACG population studies performed in Greenland since the 1960'ies, including gonioscopy and extensive anterior chamber depth measurements as attempts of early PACG detection.