title: Differences in the trabecular meshwork between Belgian and Congolese patients with open-angle glaucoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the alterations of the trabecular meshwork of Belgian and Congolese patients with open angle glaucoma (OAG).
  
  
  METHODS
  A trabeculectomy was performed in 27 OAG patients from Belgium and 24 from Congo; the trabecular specimens were fixed, embedded, stained, and studied by light microscopy. These specimens were compared with the trabecular meshworks from 5 Belgian non-glaucomatous eyes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean number (+/- standard deviation) of trabecular cells per field was 69 (+/- 10) in Belgian normal eyes, 34 (+/- 17) in Belgian OAG patients, and 10 (+/- 6) in Congolese OAG patients. The trabecular meshwork was collapsed and Schlemm's canal was closed in the cases with a diminished number of cells. Pigmentation was present in 79% of the Congolese and in 35% of the Belgian specimens.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The trabecular meshwork from OAG patients has a lower cellularity than normal, and the effect is much more pronounced in the trabecular meshwork from Congolese patients. This may be a possible explanation for the racial differences in OAG and the more severe forms of glaucoma in black people.
authors.affiliation: Dept. Ophthalmology, K.U. Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pary-Van Ginderdeuren
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kaimbo Wa Kaimbo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goethals
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Missotten
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001530:Belgium; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D014129:Trabecular Meshwork / Q000473:pathology*