Special Tests for Glaucoma

Glaucoma – Special Tests for Glaucoma

Glaucoma stands in the second position as the leading cause of blindness in adults. The condition where your fluid pressure builds up or rises beyond the normal is regarded as Glaucoma. To prevent, control or eliminate glaucoma, regular or annual tests through which glaucoma is detected earlier are recommended to prevent vision loss. The special tests for Glaucoma treatment in India include;

Field Charting
Field charting or field of vision helps to describe the side vision when one is looking straight ahead. This test is important in the diagnosis and follow up of various eye diseases such as glaucoma or those relating the eye to the brain (Neuro-ophthalmology). A computerized machine known as Humphrey Field Analyzer is one used to carry out this test. This machine is programmed to test several points, sometimes with varying illumination repeatedly. The software in the computer helps to compare the vision as the tests are being done.

GDx Nerve Fibre Analyzer
Modern technology facilitates the measurement of the thickness of the nerve fibre layer, a part of the retina that is first affected by Glaucoma. This nerve fibre layer defect is detected before any other defect is detected during the eye examination.

This test involves the use of scanning laser that passes through the nerve fibre layer and during this, a process known as retardation occurs. By measuring the extent of retardation, the machine calculates the thickness of the nerve fibre layer.
This test allows the early detection of any damage caused by glaucoma.

Optic Disc Photography
The Optic disc is the only part of the optic nerve that is visible to the doctor in the back of the eye. The appearance of the optic disc provides a platform to diagnose and treat eye conditions such as glaucoma.

Your doctor may have to perform several tests of this kind in a given period of time and compare the appearance of the disc in the case of chronic glaucoma. Therefore, photography is one of the techniques that render this possible.

Ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM)
This advanced technology in ultrasonography permits high-resolution pictures of the frontal part of the eye and it also enables the measurement of the angle of the eye which is mostly not accessible for measurement.

This angle of the eye is the path through which the fluid finds access outside and this angle can become closed in certain individuals. This propensity of the closure of the angle can be more effectively predicted using this modern test.

In case of an injury to the eye, abnormal communications occur, leading to excess drainage of the fluid resulting in soft eyes. Such abnormalities can be detected by this test.