Ophthalmology
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To assess the quality of glaucoma referral letters and to report on the results of a survey of glaucoma specialists about referral letter content. ⋯ Referral letters frequently did not include important information, with 34% of referral letters deemed substandard. Optometrist referrals were better than ophthalmologist referrals in terms of content and legibility. A checklist of clinical details for referring physicians is suggested, which includes maximum and current IOP, disc evaluation, serial VFs, and serial disc imaging.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
The United Kingdom Glaucoma Treatment Study: a multicenter, randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial: baseline characteristics.
The United Kingdom Glaucoma Treatment Study (UKGTS) tests the hypothesis that treatment with a topical prostaglandin analog, compared with placebo, reduces the frequency of visual field (VF) deterioration events in patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) by 50% over a 2-year period. Additional goals are to evaluate study power with novel clinical trial outcomes: (1) VF deterioration velocity and (2) VF and quantitative imaging measurements modeled as joint outcomes. ⋯ This is the first randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of medical treatment in reducing VF deterioration in OAG. The baseline characteristics for eligible patients and eyes from this cohort are presented and compared with those of previous trials. The baseline characteristics are similar to those of the largely population-based Early Manifest Glaucoma Trial. The early stage of the glaucoma and relatively low IOP at diagnosis suggest remarkably sensitive case findings by community optometrists in the United Kingdom.
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Multicenter Study
Development of the functional vision questionnaire for children and young people with visual impairment: the FVQ_CYP.
To develop a novel age-appropriate measure of functional vision (FV) for self-reporting by visually impaired (VI) children and young people. ⋯ We have developed a novel, psychometrically robust self-report questionnaire for children and young people-the FVQ_CYP-that captures the functional impact of visual disability from their perspective. The 36-item, 4-point unidimensional scale has potential as a complementary adjunct to objective clinical assessments in routine pediatric ophthalmology practice and in research.