Closed Angle Glaucoma

[flana]

Hi... so I happened to be at my Ophthalmologist yesterday morning and she checked my eyes reporting closed angle Glaucoma. Suggested Laser Iridotomy. Appt was made for Jan 14th and follow up on the 15th. She said this happens due to the Prednisone that I was taking and advised that the angle could close rather rapidly leading to vision loss.

Well, so I reported this back to Dr. Shapiro (pri. rheumi) and he said he would talk with her and in addition he asked me to seek a 2nd opinion from Dr. Richard A. Lewis. Also suggested an appointment with Dr. Kearns (ENT) for the recent bleedings. I could not get an appt with Dr. Kearns though as I was already scheduled with him on the 17th of this month. I also talked with him on Dr. Sharon Chung (UCSF), he said he would investigate and send her a referral, but could not find if she was a Wegeners Specialist in his system.

In any case... I was lucky to see Dr. Lewis the same day , a series of tests were performed at this clinic including the Visante™ OCT Optical Coherence Tomography. One of the angles showed narrow - about 9.8 degrees. However the doctor did not think I needed any surgery. He said he would report back to Dr. Shapiro.

Any suggestions anyone?

[JanW]

I don't have any advice about the eyes, other than this is a well known side effect of prednisone. It really seems as though now, more than ever, you need to see a specialist.

Have you ever given any serious consideration to coming East to a center? Or perhaps University of Utah, which is the closest to you. Some people do go to UCSF, but it isn't a center, I think that Chung may be one of the few doctors there qualified to treat WG, so I'm not sure about accessibility to an ENT for instance.

Mayo has the top vasculitis eye guy in the country, by the way. He was the only ophthalmologist at the Symposium.

[flana]

Thanks Jan... I just got a call from Dr. Chung this afternoon, she has asked her staff to get me in next week. So that is the bright side of the day. My sister lives in NJ and I might see if I can get into JH if all attempts here in the west coast yield nothing...

[elephant]

Hope all goes well and you get really great care with those eyes! Keep us updated.

[flana]

Thanks will do, elephant.

I still have the question if it is advisable to do the laser Iridotomy with 9.8 deg. of closed angle. Has anyone gone through this surgery? What has the experience been?

[JanW]

Good luck flana. I am so happy that you are getting in with an expert.

[julia]

I have glaucoma since being on pred. I use drops every night. The pressure in my eyes is o.k. with the drops. At one of my appointments the Dr. mentioned laser surgery but after we discussed it he said he would not recommend it for me at this time. We are still hopeful that the glaucoma will improve when I am off pred.

[flana]

Julia hi, Did you do the Visante OCT test? any idea what your angles were? Oh, and what drops are you using?

[julia]

I had 2 tests 1 was a field vision test? I can not remember the 2nd. the drops I take are travatan(? sp.)

I do not remember if the doctor described it as closed angle glaucoma.

I know my pressures were 29 in each eye. They are now around 19.

[flana]

Thanks Julia... if you ever come to know what angle measures were, could you please post them in this thread? in the mean while I will keep researching.