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Neuroprotection showed efficacy in one study; others are under way
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LAS VEGAS — Clinical studies of neuroprotection in patients with Alzheimer’s disease may give clues to how the process might work in glaucoma, according to Leonard A. Levin, MD, PhD. Dr. Levin presented information on neuroprotection in glaucoma here at the Ocular Surgery News Symposium, Glaucoma: Improving Your Odds.
Dr. Levin said that in the past physicians did not understand how apoptosis could be induced in an optic nerve disease like glaucoma and that there was no proof from a clinical trial that neuroprotection could work.
“Neuroprotection was difficult to prove because it works in chronic diseases, but not as well for acute diseases,” Dr. Levin said. He said studies to prove that a neuroprotective therapy works would require “many patients and several years.”
But he noted that in a study published in 2003 in the New England Journal of Medicine, neuroprotection was demonstrated in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
Additionally, he said, a recent study comparing patients who received brimonidine 0.2% twice a day or argon laser trabeculoplasty showed that, after 18 months of follow-up, patients who received brimonidine had a lower mean slope of field loss than those who underwent ALT.