Glaucoma is a cluster of eye conditions generally sharing prevalent characteristics like high IOP or intraocular pressure or eye pressure that has a damaging effect on the optic nerve and leads to eventual vision failure. However, glaucoma could develop even in the absence of any rise in eye pressure due to a condition called as Normal pressure or low pressure glaucoma or at times called as low-tension glaucoma.
Several specialists are of the viewpoint that individuals who develop low pressure glaucoma possess unusual sensitiveness in their optic nerves. However, there are several unidentified factors that could be major contributors to this eye condition.
Low pressure glaucoma also known as normal tension glaucoma (NTG) is a type of glaucoma wherein harm to the optic nerve arises even when eye pressure do not exceed the normal range that lies between ten to twenty mm Hg.
Causes:
Causes of low pressure glaucoma still elude us and for inexplicable reasons, the optic nerve is prone to harm from even normal IOP. Investigators are still in the process of examining the reason for damage to optic nerves due to these comparatively low levels of IOP.
Diagnosis & Tests:
Diagnosis of Low pressure glaucoma is done by checking the optic nerve for any indications of harm by duo means:
An apparatus known as ophthalmoscope is employed by holding it near the eye in a dark enclosure. The light emitted from the device assists the physician in looking via the pupil and examining the contour and colour of the optic nerve. Nerve that exhibits cupping or not a normal pink tone is a reason to be concerned.- A visual field test is used for producing a map of the person’s total field of eye sight and checks for any regions of vision failure that could have occurred due to harm to optic nerve. This damage would be apparent as minor modifications in the individual’s eye sight that occurs from core to the edging of the field of eye sight. Such alterations are not essentially perceivable to the affected person.
Risk Factors:
There are a number of risk factors that raise chances of developing low pressure glaucoma, namely:
- Family past of any form of glaucoma, though not essentially having to be low pressure glaucoma.
- Being of Japanese heritage.
- Heart ailment.
- In North-America, low pressure glaucoma has greater prevalence among females as compared to males.
Treatment:
As there is dearth of knowledge regarding why normal eye pressure is damaging to the eyes, majority of the physicians conduct treatment of low pressure glaucoma by decreasing eye pressure as least as doable employing drugs, laser therapies and filtering surgical procedures.
In the past ten years, Glaucoma Research Foundation trial has shown the advantages and downsides of reducing IOP to the low-normal range rather than middle or high-normal level.
