How to Diagnose Glaucoma

According to the Glaucoma Foundation, untreated glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness. Approximately 10 percent of people who receive treatment still lose their vision. With no cure available for glaucoma, proper diagnosis and treatment is essential to preserve as much vision as possible.

Things You'll Need

• Ophthalmologist

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Instructions

Understand Glaucoma

• 1

  Be aware that no cure exists for glaucoma. Once vision is gone, it cannot be restored.

• 2

  Watch for signs of glaucoma if you're considered at risk. While the elderly are more prone to have glaucoma, it has been diagnosed in babies. African-Americans are more likely to have glaucoma at an early age.

• 3

  Understand that glaucoma can occur without any warning signs or symptoms. Vision loss is usually slow.

• 4

  Know that several medications are used to keep glaucoma under control to prevent further damage.

• 5

  Realize that in some cases, surgery is performed to help lower the intraocular pressure. Depending on the amount of intervention required, the procedure may be either laser or filtering microsurgery.

Take Steps to Diagnose Glaucoma

• 6

  Find tonometry used to check the intraocular pressure. This screening test to diagnose glaucoma can be either air-puff or applanation tonometry. Numbing eyedrops are used with either method. Intraocular pressure in excess of 22 mm Hg indicates potential for glaucoma.

• 7

  Expect the ophthalmologist to use an ophthalmoscope to look into the back of your eye for any signs of glaucoma. A laser light may be used to create a computerized three-dimensional image of the optic nerve. This is important for future reference to document changes.

• 8

  Agree to take a visual field test to check for any blind spots that may indicate the presence of glaucoma. This mapping of your entire visual field is another means used to measure future changes in vision. This is important to monitor the progress of glaucoma.

• 9

  Eliminate the possibility of thick corneas giving a false positive on the glaucoma air pressure reading through pachymetry. After the eyes are numbed, an ultrasonic-wave instrument measures the thickness of your cornea.

• 10

  Understand that a combination of findings must exist before one can diagnose glaucoma. These include identified areas of vision loss, optical nerve damage and an elevation in the intraocular pressure.