gms | German Medical Science

TalkingEyes is a field study to investigate the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke by examination of retinal vessels. The examination of the retina covers an evaluation of the papilla. A glaucoma diagnosis was given for all subjects. We describe the prevalence for different age groups. As pilot study of a glaucoma screening our main interest was the age group 45 to 65 years.

19293 volunteering subjects were investigated with a non-mydriatic fundus camera until January 2004. The papilla was assigned to one of the groups glaucomatous optic atrophy, suspected glaucomatous optic atrophy and others.

The age group 45 to 65 years consists of 9787 subjects, 5885 men and 3902 women. 35 (0.36%) subjects were diagnosed with glaucoma, 9 women (0.23%) and 26 men (0.44%). 256 subjects were diagnosed with suspected glaucoma (2.6%), 94 women (2.4%) and 162 men (2.8%). 0.14% (5 subjects) in the group 45 to 50 years (3597 subjects) have glaucoma, 0.33% (10 subjects) in the group 51 to 55 years (2996 subjects), 0.49% (10 subjects) in the group 56 to 60 years (2023 subjects) and 0.85% (10 subjects) in the group 61 to 65 years (1171 subjects). 2.6% (93 subjects) of the group 45 to 50 years are glaucoma suspects, 2.6% (79 subjects) of the group 51 to 55 years, 2.5% (51 subjects) of the group 56 to 60 years and 2.8% (33 subjects) of the group 61 to 65 years. Glaucoma was found at 0.06% (5 subjects) of the group younger than 45 years (8735 subjects) and at 2.1% (16 subjects) of the group older than 65 years (771 subjects), 1.7% (145 subjects) of the group younger than 45 and 6.5% (50 subjects) of the group older than 65 were glaucoma suspects.