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Researchers examine narrow angles in Asian, Asian-American populations
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BEIJING — History might explain the similarities between some Asian-American and Asian populations and glaucoma subsets, including a high frequency of narrow angles, a clinician said here.
Shan Lin, MD, presented results from studies examining glaucoma in Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Filipino-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans here at the 25th APAO Congress.
The results of a retrospective, clinic-based study of a physician's San Francisco Chinatown Chinese-American patients found that 57% of those patients had narrow angles on gonioscopic examination, he said.
Another study, looking prospectively at mainland Chinese, Chinese-Americans and Caucasians, is examining risk factors and biometric parameters for narrow angles. Dr. Lin said he is especially intrigued by the differences between Asian and Caucasian angles and why those differences exist.
"It will [also] be interesting to see differences between Chinese from China and Chinese-Americans," Dr. Lin said.
He outlined the historical migration and location of Asian countries studied and why certain glaucoma subsets might be more common in some countries and not others.