Glaucoma

Abstract

Several types of glaucoma are caused by structural abnormalities of the anterior segment of the globe. This is particularly true of angle closure glaucoma and infantile glaucoma. The ability of ultrasound biomicroscopy to image anterior chamber structures in depth at high resolution makes it a useful tool in glaucoma research and clinical practice. Although histological specimens are occasionally available in various glaucoma entities, these are usually obtained in the end stages of the disease process. Processing of sections suitable for optical microscopy invariably produces distortion of the relationships of intraocular structures. A good example of the problem of postmortem distortion is found in plateau iris syndrome. In a recent publication [1] we compared the histological findings in an enucleated eye with the findings in the remaining living eye and found very different features. The etiological role of the ciliary processes (see below) would have been entirely missed if only the histological specimen had been examined.