Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study

The Diagnostic Innovation in Glaucoma Study (DIGS) and ADAGES are longitudinal studies in which participants with or without myopia are examined approximately biannually, in most cases. Healthy controls with or without myopia are examined once, in most cases. The ADAGES recruitment and testing of individuals of African descent is an independently funded multi-center (including UCSD, Columbia University, and University of Alabama, Birmingham) study, which follows the same study protocol as the DIGS to ensure that the data from both studies can be analyzed together. This harmonization of protocols leverages the advantages of both DIGS by increasing the sample sizes to address the unique hypotheses of each study.

All participants must be 18 years old or older. Participants with or without myopia will be required to have at least one eye with open angles, best corrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better to be included. Participants taking a medication known to affect visual field sensitivity and eyes with a history of intraocular surgery (except uncomplicated glaucoma and cataract surgery), a secondary cause of elevated intraocular pressure, a coexisting intraocular disease affecting visual field, or a problem other than glaucoma affecting color vision may be excluded.

Most of the extensive testing completed for these visits can be considered standard of care, but for clinical care all tests are not generally all done at the same patient visit with the variety of instruments included in this research project. The following tests can be considered standard of care: medical history, blood pressure and heart rate, height and weight, visual acuity testing near acuity testing, low contrast sensitivity testing, slit lamp biomicroscopy (including gonioscopy), measurements of intraocular pressure with contact and non-contact tonometry, corneal thickness measurement (pachymetry), corneal elasticity measured using non-contact tonometry, interocular axial length, corneal curvature, anterior chamber depth measurements (all measured using intraocular lens IOL master), dilated fundoscopy, stereoscopic ophthalmoscopy of the optic disc with a 78 D lens, color vision testing, standard automated perimetry, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and photography.

There is currently no end date to the study, as the follow-up will continue as long as the research is supported.

The time involved is usually 2-4 visits per year of approximately 2-5 hours each.