Pseudoexfoliative Syndrome as a Trigger for Pseudoexfoliative Glaucoma

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness and disability worldwide. Pseudoexfoliative glaucoma is known to be the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat form of secondary glaucoma. According to the literature, pseudoexfoliative glaucoma occurs in 25-30% of cases among all open-angle glaucoma. The recent studies have established that a quarter of patients with pseudoexfoliative glaucoma are blind in one eye, and 7% are blind in both eyes. Risk factors for glaucoma include systemic and ophthalmic factors, one of which is the development of pseudoexfoliative syndrome. In patients with pseudoexfoliative syndrome, glaucoma occurs 20 times more often than in the general population of the same age. The purpose of this research is to study the informativeness of individual phenomena of pseudoexfoliative syndrome (PES) in order to improve early diagnosis and prevention of pseudoexfoliative glaucoma. The study included 114 patients diagnosed as having PES. Exclusion criteria were as follows: age up to 45 years, surgery on the eyeball, a history of disease (iridocyclitis, uveitis, corneal pathology, and traumatic eye disease), pigment dispersion syndrome. Along with the standard set of diagnostic measures, patients underwent biomicroscopy in the conditions of maximum drug-induced mydriasis, gonioscopic examination; the proportion of patients was examined by optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT Topson 3D oct-2000FA Plus (version 7/21/003/0)). The study revealed signs of pseudoexfoliative syndrome (deposition of pseudoexfoliative material on various structures of the anterior segment of the eye) in 100% of cases. Higher values of intraocular pressure (from 29 to 34 mm Hg) were found in the patients with elements of blocking the angle of the anterior chamber (narrowing or closing the angle, increased pigmentation and the presence of draining exfoliative conglomerates). The optical coherence tomography study revealed a thinning of the retinal nerve fibres (33.60 ± 0.43 μm), a significant thinning of retinal nerve fibre layer in patients with pseudoexfoliative syndrome and even more significant thinning in 29 patients diagnosed with pseudoexfoliative glaucoma. Thus, we can conclude knowing the microsymptoms of the disease, mandatory investigating the conditions of the maximum drug-induced mydriasis can contribute to detect pseudoexfoliative syndrome even in the initial stages and thus to prevent the development of pseudoexfoliative glaucoma.