Racial influences in open-angle glaucoma

Blindness due to glaucoma is much greater in blacks than in whites. Using a computerized diagnostic index we identified more than 1,300 patients being treated for glaucoma in our outpatient clinics. Analysis of this clinic population indicated that open-angle glaucoma is more prevalent among blacks than in whites. They also indicate that open-angle glaucoma occurs at a younger age in the black population. We have very limited data that tend to indicate that open-angle glaucoma is a more severe disease in blacks than in whites; however, this evidence is far from conclusive. Finally, our findings indicate that in our institution we are seeing the full range of the glaucomatous process in the black population and not merely the end-stage disease.