HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo explains that it is usually related to unhealthy pressure inside the eye, but symptoms are often so subtle, people don't even know they have it until it begins to steal their sight.
For 14 years, 42-year-old computer programmer Toni Whitaker has been living with glaucoma. "Before I was diagnosed, it was like you don't even think about the idea of not having any vision."
Now that it's taken away some of her peripheral vision, she sees things a lot differently. "You know, I'm a programmer. I'm a geek at heart. It's like I don't know what I would do if I couldn't, you know, write code or sit in front of a computer."
Three times a year it's the same drill: Anesthetic eye drops, then a two-second test to see if her eye pressure is changing, which could be a sign her glaucoma is progressing.
Six seconds-worth of data is highly inadequate for managing a chronic disease that's 'round the clock," Dr. Sanjay Asrani said.
This test, in trials at Duke University, allows patients like Toni to check their intraocular pressure at home several times a day, the same way diabetics check their blood sugar. The goal is the same - better management of the disease.
"If we can control the fluctuations and the patient is stable, it is my experience that the patients do not progress," Asrani explained.
If Toni's glaucoma doesn't get worse, neither will her vision. "Eyesight is an important part of what I do every day. I can't even imagine my life without being able to see."
With help from new technology, she hopes she'll never have to.
The home glaucoma test is actually a new, easy-to-use version of a test designed for clinical use. It's still experimental, but Duke Eye Center patients have already used the test successfully to check fluctuations in their glaucoma over extended periods of time.
The hope is that this home test could one day help glaucoma patients manage their disease the way high blood pressure and diabetes patients can.
