Glaucoma diagnosis has advanced significantly, from relying primarily on high intraocular pressure (IOP) to currently using artificial intelligence to identify even when IOP is normal. However, to properly combat this vision-threatening illness, experts recommend that people over the age of 40 get regular screenings.
Dr Sri Ganesh, Chairman and Managing Director, of Nethradhama Super Speciality Eye Hospital, Bengaluru, said “Glaucoma is a multifactorial disease and needs multiple inputs like IOP, optic nerve damage and visual field loss for diagnosis. Epidemiological studies estimate that glaucoma will affect 27.8 million people in Asia by 2040 with the maximum patients in India and China.”
While there are many variables to consider while diagnosing early glaucoma, AI can be extremely useful. Dr Sri Ganesh explained that early detection of glaucoma can avert blindness because visual loss in glaucoma is irreversible. Dr Sri Ganesh went on to say that the most recent technology for treating glaucoma is MIGS (micro-invasive glaucoma surgery), which entails making a microscopic incision into the drainage tissue and introducing a catheter into the drainage canal.
Source : ET Healthworld | BioSpectrum India