scholarly journals A socioeconomic evaluation of early-stage and moderate glaucoma patients

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 68-87
Author(s):  
Miglė Lindžiūtė ◽  
Ingrida Janulevičienė

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare costs related to glaucoma treatment for early- and moderate-stage glaucoma patients. Design: Descriptive observational study. Methods: The study was conducted at the Eye Clinic in the Hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno Klinikos in Lithuania. An original questionnaire was administered to 80 open-angle glaucoma patients. Data regarding the age, gender, living area, occupation, income, concomitant diseases, frequency of outpatient visits, use of topical antiglaucoma and other medications, treatment and transportation costs were collected. The Hodapp classification was used to divide patients into two main groups of early- and moderate-stage glaucoma according to visual field loss. Results with p < 0.05 were interpreted as statically significant. Results: There were 37 patients with early-stage glaucoma and 43 patients with moderate glaucoma. Moderate-stage glaucoma patients were 73 (± 8) years old, while patients with early-stage glaucoma were 63 (± 11) years old, (p < 0.001). Early-stage glaucoma patients visited their ophthalmologist 2.5 (± 1.5) times per year, while patients with moderate glaucoma had 4.4 (± 2.7) outpatient visits per year (p < 0.001). Patients with early-stage glaucoma used 1.8 (± 0.9) medications, while patients with moderate glaucoma used 2.9 (± 0.9) medications (p < 0.001). Combined costs for treatment and transportation totaled an average of 4.7% of patient income. Patients that were in the early stages of glaucoma spent about 3.2% of their annual income for glaucoma care and transportation, while patients with moderate-stage glaucoma spent about 5.9% of their income (p = 0.003). Conclusion: Moderate-stage glaucoma patients had significantly higher expenses related to glaucoma than early-stage glaucoma patients. Costs related to glaucoma comprised a significantly greater part of the income of patients who were retired than patients who were employed.

Author(s):  
Alan D. Penman ◽  
Kimberly W. Crowder ◽  
William M. Watkins

The Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study (CIGTS) was a randomized clinical trial to determine whether patients with newly diagnosed open-angle glaucoma (OAG) were managed better by initial treatment with medications (using a stepped regimen of medications starting initially with a topical beta-blocker) or by immediate filtration surgery (trabeculectomy with or without 5-fluorouracil). Although the surgery group achieved a lower mean intraocular pressure (IOP) than the medication group, both groups had similarly low rates of visual field progression. Three measures of IOP fluctuation over extended time, the range of IOP, the standard deviation of IOP, and the maximum IOP, seem to play an important role in visual field progression The results showed that more aggressive treatment was warranted when undue elevation or variation in IOP measures is observed.


Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Eirini Delikoura ◽  
Dimitrios Kouis

Recently significant initiatives have been launched for the dissemination of Open Access as part of the Open Science movement. Nevertheless, two other major pillars of Open Science such as Open Research Data (ORD) and Open Peer Review (OPR) are still in an early stage of development among the communities of researchers and stakeholders. The present study sought to unveil the perceptions of a medical and health sciences community about these issues. Through the investigation of researchers` attitudes, valuable conclusions can be drawn, especially in the field of medicine and health sciences, where an explosive growth of scientific publishing exists. A quantitative survey was conducted based on a structured questionnaire, with 179 valid responses. The participants in the survey agreed with the Open Peer Review principles. However, they ignored basic terms like FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and appeared incentivized to permit the exploitation of their data. Regarding Open Peer Review (OPR), participants expressed their agreement, implying their support for a trustworthy evaluation system. Conclusively, researchers need to receive proper training for both Open Research Data principles and Open Peer Review processes which combined with a reformed evaluation system will enable them to take full advantage of the opportunities that arise from the new scholarly publishing and communication landscape.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoshi Li ◽  
Xia Wang ◽  
Yahui Wei ◽  
Yuan Fang ◽  
Tian Tian ◽  
...  

Abstract Background To assess the diagnostic capability of novel Bruch’s membrane opening (BMO)-based disc parameters, the BMO-minimum rim width (BMO-MRW) and the BMO-minimum rim area (BMO-MRA) in the Chinese population and compare them to the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) from optical coherence tomography (OCT) and the rim area (RA) from the Heidelberg retinal tomograph-III (HRT-III). Methods In total, 200 eyes of 77 healthy and 123 primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) subjects were included in this cross-sectional study. All participants underwent the visual field test and structural measurements by OCT and HRT-III. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of different structural parameters were calculated to assess their diagnostic power and compared using the DeLong test. Results In populations with different characteristics, the BMO-MRW and BMO-MRA had better diagnostic power than the RA. In discriminating between all POAG subjects and healthy controls and between early-stage patients and controls, the global BMO-MRW had comparable AUCs with the RNFL, but the BMO-MRA had lower AUCs than the RNFL. In healthy subjects with macrodiscs, both the global and sectoral BMO-MRW were thinner than those in healthy subjects with normal disc size. The AUCs of BMO-MRA, BMO-MRW and RNFL in subjects with macrodiscs were comparable. Additionally, in the myopic population, the BMO-MRA and BMO-MRW had comparable AUCs with the RNFL. Conclusions The BMO-MRW had comparable diagnostic power with the RNFL, and compared with BMO-MRW, the BMO-MRA might have advantages in certain populations, such as macrodiscs. All OCT-derived parameters exceeded the RA in diagnostic capability.


2022 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Antunes Schiave Germano ◽  
Caroline Schiave Germano ◽  
Fernanda Nicolela Susanna ◽  
Remo Susanna Junior

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leanne McDonald ◽  
Fiona C. Glen ◽  
Deanna J. Taylor ◽  
David P. Crabb

Purpose. Glaucoma patients annually spend only a few hours in an eye clinic but spend more than 5000 waking hours engaged in everything else. We propose that patients could self-monitor changes in visual symptoms providing valuable between clinic information; we test the hypothesis that this is feasible using a web-based diary tool. Methods. Ten glaucoma patients with a range of visual field loss took part in an eight-week pilot study. After completing a series of baseline tests, volunteers were prompted to monitor symptoms every three days and complete a diary about their vision during daily life using a bespoke web-based diary tool. Response to an end of a study questionnaire about the usefulness of the exercise was a main outcome measure. Results. Eight of the 10 patients rated the monitoring scheme to be “valuable” or “very valuable.” Completion rate to items was excellent (96%). Themes from a qualitative synthesis of the diary entries related to behavioural aspects of glaucoma. One patient concluded that a constant focus on monitoring symptoms led to negative feelings. Conclusions. A web-based diary tool for monitoring self-reported glaucoma symptoms is practically feasible. The tool must be carefully designed to ensure participants are benefitting, and it is not increasing anxiety.


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