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OHTS results validated by similar European glaucoma study
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CHARLESTON, S.C. — Results of a landmark U.S. study of ocular hypertension treatment were validated by similar results in a European trial, according to one of the key researchers.
Michael A. Kass, MD, told attendees at the American Glaucoma Society here that results of the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS) were recently compared to those from the European Glaucoma Prevention Study Group (EGPS), and “interesting coincidences and divergences” were found.
“They were similar enough to compare, but different enough to be worth it,” Dr. Kass said.
Only eyes that were untreated were included in the comparison of the two studies, he said. The incidence of progression to primary open-angle glaucoma in untreated eyes in the OHTS was 12.6%, and the incidence in the EGPS placebo group was 11.7%, he said.
In addition, the hazard ratios were “remarkably similar” between the two studies, he said. Hazard ratios for risk factors including age, heart disease, IOP, cup-to-disk ratio and central corneal thickness were not significantly different between the two studies.
"If you look at the hazard ratios, the thing that strikes you is how extraordinarily similar they are,” Dr. Kass said. “If they were any more similar, I think people would have accused us of fudging this data, of having made it up. It is remarkably similar across the two studies."
Dr. Kass said researchers will now pool data from the two studies to tighten confidence intervals. He said a joint analysis of the two studies is currently being planned for presentation at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting this fall.