Results confirm the thesis that vascular factors play a significant role in the pathogenesis of the glaucoma, especially in cases where the level of intraocular pressure cannot be deemed responsible for the present damage of the optical nerve. Despite the newer, technologically more developed methods for diagnostics and monitoring glaucoma, it is often not easy to establish the right diagnosis and determine further the course of the illness, since the role the intraocular pressure (IOP) plays compared to the role of vascular factors is unknown; hence, capillaroscopy as a complementary diagnostic procedure can be of help.
In diagnosing ocular hypertension and its conversion to glaucoma, HRT II is used for quantitative evaluation of retinal topography and for quantitative monitoring of topographical changes, especially regarding the increase of C/D ratio and loss of rim volume tissue, which enables to see and register subtle structural changes in optic nerve head and RNFL that are so characteristic for glaucoma, which cannot be seen by an ophthalmoscope. With these results, according to risk factors for glaucoma, one can confirm the diagnosis of ocular hypertension and its conversion to primary open-angle glaucoma. In this study HRT II revealed conversion of ocular hypertension into glaucoma in 10% of the patients.
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