Active clinical trials for "Glaucoma"

This study is designed to investigate whether the pupil response to slowly flashing colored lights is significantly altered in patients with glaucoma, as compared to a control group of subjects without glaucoma.

This study aims at validating in real-life clinical practice and using the self-reported Glaucoma Symptom Scale (GSS) questionnaire, the impact of a switch to preservative-free dorzolamide/timolol fixed combination (DTFC) in patients using preserved topical therapy for glaucoma.

The purpose of this study is to examine if a chronic dehydration is a risk factor for the developement or progression of some forms of glaucoma.

The purpose of this study is to determine which medical, demographic, and health belief factors are associated with glaucoma therapy compliance.

Spectrailis optical coherence tomography has come with a new posterior pole asymmetry analysis for glaucoma diagnosis. The aim of the investigators study was to assess its applicability in diagnosing early glaucoma patients.

This project aims to evaluate a self-administered screening test for glaucoma, the second largest cause of blindness in the western world. New approaches to glaucoma screening are needed because a significant number of patients first present to hospitals with advanced-stage glaucoma and late presentation is associated with a much higher risk for future blindness. This project will develop a new user-friendly visual field test that will be made available through the internet for self-testing. It will conduct both hospital-based and community-based clinical trials to establish benefits and costs of this new test.

Retinal ischemia is thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of glaucoma. Up until today, very little is known about the metabolic alterations in the retina of glaucoma patients, since only techniques for surrogate measurements of metabolism (like blood flow velocities and vessel diameter) were available. Oximetry has provided us with an important tool to study metabolism in glaucoma, and to correlate these findings with the available blood flow evaluation techniques. Preliminary results by the group of Prof Stefánsson (2011) with the dual wavelength oximeter pointed out that deeper glaucomatous visual field defects are associated with decreased arteriovenous differences in retinal oxygen saturation. These data suggest that a change in oxygen metabolism occurs in glaucomatous retina. This reduced oxygen metabolism may be related to tissue atrophy. However, this explanation is still hypothetical, since the relation between these oximetry results and structural changes in the optic nerve have not been studied yet. What are the oximetry values in a normal population of within the same age group as the glaucoma population? To answer this question, a normative database of the investigators retinal oximetry device needs to be constructed for healthy controls. Do glaucoma patients have different retinal oximetry values than these normal patients? Are there any differences in retinal oxygenation between these glaucoma groups? To answer these questions, oximetry measurements will be performed in patients with normal tension glaucoma (NTG) and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). Is there an association between structural optic disc and retinal nerve fibre layer changes, using Heidelberg Retinal Tomography (HRT), with alterations in retinal vascular oxygen saturation in NTG and POAG patients? Are blood flow measurements, using colour Doppler imaging (CDI), correlated with alteration in retinal vascular oxygen in NTG and POAG patients?

The aim of this study is imaging of trabeculectomy blebs regarding structure and function with the spectral domain optical coherence tomography.

We hypothesize that glaucoma patients demonstrate an impaired retinal vascular response to the flicker stimulus, and that this disturbance is predictive of the progression of glaucomatous damage. The response of a major temporal superior and inferior retinal artery and vein to a 60 seconds 12.5 Hz flicker light stimulation in 50 glaucoma patients, 50 ocular hypertensives and 50 controls (using the Retinal Vessel Analyzer) and to investigate how intraocular pressure relates to neurovascular coupling. In addition, 50 glaucoma patients and 50 ocular hypertension patients will be followed for 3 years for functional (visual field, automated perimetry with Octopus device) and morphological (retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, Optical Coherence Tomography Stratus ocular coherence tomography (OCT) device) glaucomatous damage progression, in order to test the predictive power of the retinal vascular flicker response for glaucoma progression.

Retinal structures are difficult to visualize because the retina is optically transparent. In glaucoma, the microglia in the retina becomes activated in eyes with glaucomatous damage. The microglia forms a dense meshwork which resembles gliosis-like alterations, which may increase light scattering. With appropriate technology, increased reflection and light scattering from the retina may be detected in eyes of glaucoma patients. In this study, we investigate whether clinically observable retinal gliosis-like alterations occur more often in patients with glaucoma than in non-glaucomatous controls, and whether gliosis-like alterations are associated with a vasospastic propensity.