Drs. Massimo A. Fazio and Christopher A. Girkin from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Ophthalmology have been awarded a four-year, $2.56 million R01 grant from the National Eye Institute (NEI) to explore how visual field loss developed with glaucoma is associated with individual-specific biomechanics of the eye.
The new study will reportedly look at the role of biomechanical differences in the optic nerve that may explain why individuals of African descent are at the greatest risk of developing glaucoma. Researchers will reportedly use optical coherence tomography (OCT) to capture 3D images of the optic nerve head, allowing them to define structural and biomechanical differences in the optic nerve that exist between people of European and African descents, in an effort to determine how these differences increase the rate of glaucoma progression and disease susceptibility.
According to researchers, their ultimate goal is to discover a biomarker to help physicians detect glaucoma before the visual field deteriorates, or to identify which individuals are more likely to progress too fast.
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Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham