anyone know anything about glaucoma at age 50? *Thread title edited at OP's request*

[Bunnyfuller]

Went for my usual 2 yearly eye test, and the lovely lady that did my tests spent a really long time on looking at my retinas (used 2-3 different methods I think). Never taken that long before. She then said that she’d like to see me in 12 months rather than the usual 2 years as there was a change in the ?ratios? and that despite my passing the pressure test ok it could be an early sign of glaucoma.

When I did the peripheral vision thingy there seemed to be longer gaps between some of the little dots showing and the girl who did it said I need to go speak to the optician and we may need to re-do this.

Dr Google is not helpful and apart from reading what glaucoma is (am I not a bit young at 51?) I can’t find anything about the ratio thing she mentioned, she said it was something to do with a colour change (I think). She’s clearly being cautious, which is fab, and stressed I didn’t need a doctor referral at this point, but the test in 12 months would be the decider.

Anyone know anything about this?

Thanks for reading

Came to read and reply to this after reading your comment on the clique thread :)

I think your problem is that the title is 'Any ophthalmologists here please?' as there probably aren't many, so people won't click as you are looking for quite specialist advice. Repost it with 'Can anyone give me some advice about possible glaucoma?' and you'll probably get more responses.

Obviously, if you are only looking for qualified advice then you need to go back to the optician and get them to explain better. Good luck. hope it all works out :)

Not an ophthalmologist but I think your optician may have been talking about the appearance of the optic nerve head at the back of the eye. In glaucoma the nerve head (often called the disc) can start to cup, so the ratio of the flat bit of the disc to the central cupped bit (we all have a bit of central cupping) can change. Some perfectly normal eyes have quite a widely cupped disc, so the actual ratio doesn’t matter as much as any change seen over time. Screening for glaucoma starts around 40 I think as it is more common with age.HTH

Hi both, thank you and thank you.

Gobbler - be careful, we may be forming a clique!

Maggiso - that makes perfect sense, thank you! She mentioned that one eye is worse than the other, and although my pressure test was ok, it needed watching.

Cheers 🙂

Yes, as PP said the optometrist was referring to the cup to disc ratio (or c/d ratio) an increased c/d ratio can be a sign of glaucoma, as can pallor (or colour change).
However, there is a lot of interpersonal variation when measuring c/d ratio so unless you have photographs of the back of the eye done each time to compare the appearance of the discs, it's very difficult from notes alone to see if it has changed.
Don't worry, but do monitor it.