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OHTS: Drugs delay onset of glaucoma in high-risk patients
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Treating patients with ocular hypertension can delay and possibly prevent the onset of glaucoma, according to a large, long-term study.
The long-awaited results of the 5-year Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS) show that treating people at risk for developing glaucoma with intraocular pressure-lowering drops can delay the onset of disease.
“The study clearly makes a connection between elevated eye pressure and the onset of glaucoma,” said Paul Sieving, MD, PhD, director of the National Eye Institute, which partially funded the study. OHTS researchers at 22 clinical centers across the country enrolled 1,636 people between the ages of 40 and 80 with elevated IOP but no signs of glaucoma. Half the group was assigned daily eye drops to control IOP and the other half were observed. The Eye Institute of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry was the sole optometry site for the OHTS.
The pressure-lowering drops reduced by more than 50% the development of primary open-angle glaucoma. See next month’s issue for complete coverage.