5 Ways to Diagnose Glaucoma

1. Know the Ways to Diagnose Glaucoma

Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness. Even with treatment, patients with glaucoma can still lose their vision. This eye disease can affect everyone and has no cure. It increases eye pressure, which can damage the optic nerve and result in vision loss. Tests to measure intraocular pressure, or IOP, use tonometry to read how much force it takes to indent the eyeball. With the Shiotz procedure, a doctor touches the eye with a tonometer, an instrument that measures the pressure against the eye. Another method measures how much force is required for a puff of air to make an indentation of the eye.

2. Pressure May Produce Changes in the Iris

Angle closure glaucoma presents with a narrowing of the iris, or the colored part of the eye. When the drainage canals of the eye are blocked, pressure inside the eye increases rapidly. Your doctor can test with a penlight aimed at the iris to determine if its width is normal or too narrow. A narrow iris coupled with symptoms such as blurry vision, headache, pain in the eye or nausea can indicate a diagnosis of angle closure glaucoma.

3. Testing for Potential Blindness

Visual field tests can diagnose glaucoma. Your doctor may administer a perimetry test, or a test that checks a patient's peripheral vision (your ability to see to the side while looking forward), when he suspects optic nerve damage. In this test, the patient looks into a monitor and clicks a button every time he sees a light flicker on the screen. The test records the clicks and notes any lapses in the patient's area of vision. Frequency doubling technology (FDT), is a screening that identifies changes in certain retinal cells that are common signs of early glaucoma.

4. Eye Disease Intensities

In patients who have high readings of intraocular pressure (IOP), a measurement of the thickness of the corneas can indicate a glaucoma diagnosis. Thinner corneas carry a greater risk of suffering damage from glaucoma than thicker corneas.

5. Testing for the Condition

Tests for optic nerve damage require that your doctor dilate the pupils with drops before performing procedures that can include using a tool to look directly at the optic nerve through the pupil. She can also look at nerves to detect any damage caused by glaucoma, such as a misshapen optic nerve or a nerve with an unhealthy color. Fundus photography takes a picture of the optic nerve which your doctor can use to determine damage from glaucoma. Doctors can measure the thickness of the nerve fibers with a laser technology known as polarimetry. The laser scans the eye to get a reading and either confirm or discount glaucoma.