Usefulness of peripheral anterior chamber depth assessment in glaucoma screening.
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to determine the usefulness of peripheral anterior chamber depth assessment in angle-closure glaucoma (ACG) screening in Japanese subjects.


METHODS
The subjects were 14,779 adults 40 years old or older. Eyes having peripheral anterior chamber depth that is 1/4 the peripheral corneal thickness (van Herick's classification: grade 2) and less than 1/4 the peripheral corneal thickness (van Herick's classification: grade 1) were extracted as narrow angle eyes, and those eyes were further examined.


RESULTS
Of 14,779 subjects, 923 eyes of 505 subjects were diagnosed as narrow angle eyes (3.4%). Narrow angle eyes were observed in 4.9% of female subjects and 1.9% of male subjects, indicating a significantly higher frequency in women. The percentage of narrow angle eyes increased with age. Among the narrow angle eyes, 61 eyes of 32 subjects were diagnosed with ACG suspect (6.5%). In contrast to the frequency of ACG suspect in eyes classified as grade 1, according to van Herick's classification, being 17.9%, that in eyes classified as grade 2 was significantly lower at 5.6%.


CONCLUSIONS
Since the incidence of ACG suspect increases as the peripheral anterior chamber depth decreases, caution for the peripheral anterior chamber depth is required for the ACG screening.
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Yamanashi, Faculty of Medicine, Tamaho, Yamanashi, Japan. kenjik@yamanashi.ac.jp
K
K
Kashiwagi
T
T
Tokunaga
A
A
Iwase
T
T
Yamamoto
S
S
Tsukahara
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology; D000867:Anterior Chamber / Q000473:pathology*; D003315:Cornea / Q000473:pathology; D003941:Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological; D005260:Female; D015812:Glaucoma, Angle-Closure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D006068:Gonioscopy; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged