• Head, Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences

Kass

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• B.S. in Zoology at University of Michigan
• M.D. at Northwestern University

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Risk assessment Model can predict risk of glaucoma in patients with elevated eye pressure Nov. 14, 2006 -- Investigators at the School of Medicine have developed a model to identify patients at high risk of developing glaucoma. Their research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Las Vegas.

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Opthalmologist Michael A. Kass, M.D., is interested primarily in the diagnosis, treatment and epidemiology of glaucoma. For the last decade, he has been the principal investigator of the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS), a multicenter clinical trial that has shown that treatment of elevated pressure in the eye can delay or prevent the onset of damage from glaucoma. Risk factors for developing the most common form of glaucoma include older age, higher intraocular pressure, a family history of the disease, thinness of the cornea and particular characteristics in that anatomy of the optic nerve. Being African American also is a risk factor. Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in African Americans.

OHTS has entered a new phase where all participants are offered medical treatment. Kass hopes to determine the whether delaying treatment in patients at risk might contribute to greater damage later in the disease process. He also is looking for ways to refine the risk model for glaucoma, to identify early signs of damage from glaucoma and to determine if there are racial differences in the protective effects of treatment.

Washington University in St. Louis	School of Medicine
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