Results of 15-year Canadian study on glaucoma are released.

The Canadian Glaucoma Study, a study funded by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) that has been ongoing for the past 15 years, has positively identified, for the first time, several risk factors predicting the progression of glaucoma. Upon presenting the results of the study at a recent Canadian Ophthalmological Society conference in Montreal, Quebec, the study's principal investigator, Balwantray Chauhan, chair of vision research for the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, announced, "The results provide a gold mine of data that is unparalleled in the field." The "gold mine" referred to by Dr. Chauhan are the four factors she and her colleagues identified for the first time as the hallmarks of the more rapid progression of the disease, which often develops over many years and tends to remain undetected until vision loss is permanent and untreatable.

Open-angle glaucoma involves damage to the eye's optic nerve, often characterized by high intraocular pressure. Until now, scientists knew little about why some patients develop the disease faster than others, once intraocular pressure is taken into account. The Canadian Glaucoma Study looked at multiple, controlled factors, and identified the four of highest significance:

* Anticardiolipin antibodies: Patients who had an antibody, associated with thrombosis (clotting in the circulatory system) or autoimmune disease, were four times more likely to progress in the disease. This had never before been considered as a possible risk factor, and will require further study.

* Gender: Women were twice as likely as men to progress in the disease.

* Age: For every year someone ages, their chance of progressing increases by 4%, confirming that open-angle glaucoma is primarily age-related.

* Intraocular pressure: Even though the study controlled for intraocular pressure, it still emerged as a major factor in the progression of glaucoma--making it even more significant than previously imagined.

In addition, the study ruled out several factors previously thought to be important, concluding that people with diabetes, hypertension, and a history of cardiovascular disease were not more likely than others to progress if they had glaucoma.

The investigation was designed in 1992 with the participation of leading glaucoma specialists across Canada. It followed 258 patients from 1994 to 2005 in university hospitals at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec; Universit6 de Montreal in Quebec; Dalhousie University; University of British Columbia in Vancouver; and University of Toronto in Ontario. For more information, contact: Jessica Parrales, communications coordinator, CNIB, 1929 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, ON M4G 3E8, Canada; phone: [phone]; e-mail: <jessica.parrales@cnib. ca>; web site: <www.cnib.ca>.