Juvenile glaucoma, race, and refraction
D. Lotufo, R. Ritch, L. Szmyd Jr and J. E. Burris
Department of Ophthalmology, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, NY 10003.
Of 68 patients who presented between the ages of 10 and 35 years with
elevated intraocular pressure, 25 were classified as juvenile ocular
hypertension and 43 as juvenile primary open-angle glaucoma. Blacks
constituted a greater proportion of the primary open-angle glaucoma
patients (47%) than of the ocular hypertensives (20%) and in both groups
presented at younger ages than did whites. Myopia was present in 59% of the
ocular hypertensives and 73% of the primary open-angle glaucoma patients,
of whom 39% had more than 6 diopters of myopia. All eyes of black patients
with more than 3 diopters of myopia had glaucomatous defects compared with
52% of such eyes of white patients. Our data suggest that myopia is
strongly associated with juvenile open-angle glaucoma and that young black
patients with elevated intraocular pressure, especially when myopic, are
more susceptible to glaucomatous damage than are whites.
