Tomorrow's practice

Dr Frank Eperjesi reports from one of the major events on the optometric calendar, held by the American Academy of Optometry, in Tampa, Florida, last month

The American Academy of Optometry met last month in Tampa, Florida for a four-day conference entitled 'Today's research, tomorrow's practice - Technology's impact on standards of care'. Speakers revealed numerous interesting research findings on topics such as glaucoma, including new thoughts on visual field analysis, the HRT II and tonometry. The programme also included useful presentations on near vision disorders and reading rehabilitation, refining refraction techniques and contact lenses.

DETECTION AND TREATMENT OF GLAUCOMA AND TONOMETRY
A group of researchers from Albuquerque investigated whether central corneal thickness (CCT) could be used to predict the severity of glaucoma.

It is known that CCT can be used to predict the development of POAG, but little is known about the predictive value of CCT for glaucoma severity.

They found that CCT was higher in glaucoma subjects without field loss than in those with field loss, but that there was no statistical difference in CCT between subjects with mild, moderate and advanced visual field loss. Therefore, CCT was useful in predicting the presence of field loss but not in predicting the severity of this loss.