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EW GLAUCOMA 96 October 2014 to understand glaucoma better, and for the medical device and phar- maceutical companies to continue to develop new therapies to treat it better," Dr. Sit said. "The one thing that we haven't improved is we haven't started diag- nosing the disease earlier, so there needs to be better public education to encourage patients to get out there and have their eyes checked." Even today, half of those with glaucoma do not know that they have it, he said. EW Reference Malihi M, Moura Filho E, Hodge D, Sit A. Long-Term Trends in Glaucoma-Related Blindness in Olmsted County, Minnesota. Ophthalmology. 2014 Jan: 121(1):134–141. Editors' note: Dr. Sit has no financial interests related to his comments. Contact information Sit: Sit.arthur@mayo.edu by Maxine Lipner EyeWorld Senior Contributing Writer Glass half full gained ground, in his view, is that of diagnosis. "We found that the age of diagnosis hadn't changed," he said. "Patients in the 1981–2000 period were diagnosed fairly late." Dr. Sit said that the incidence of glaucoma overall has not changed. "It's not that more people have glaucoma, it's that we're better at treating glaucoma," he said. In Dr. Sit's view, study results that show a decrease in the risk of blindness are encouraging. "It is a source of inspiration that the work that has been done over the past 4 decades has made a difference in terms of research, development of new diagnostic techniques, and development of new therapies," Dr. Sit said. "All of these have contrib- uted to improving the outcomes for patients who are diagnosed with glaucoma." Still, with so many patients con- tinuing to go blind, there is more to be done on many fronts, he said. "This is for government to con- tinue to fund basic science research "There was a very significant drop in the rate of blindness within 20 years of diagnosis and also in the popula- tion incidence of blindness," Dr. Sit said. "Both of those have dropped very substantially, by about 50%." While investigators assumed some progress had been made, they were surprised by the amount. "We assumed that there would be some decrease because of all of the chang- es in diagnostic techniques and ther- apeutics that have occurred over the last several decades," he said. "But the magnitude of change was quite surprising, and it was gratifying to know that we're on the right track." A significant portion of the glaucoma population does go blind, he said. Even though the risk of blindness 20 years after diagnosis dropped from about 25% to 15%, that is still too much, Dr. Sit said. Treatment boon Much of the success in lowering the risk of blindness he attributes to improvements in glaucoma treatment. One area that has not New research shows drop in risk of glaucoma blindness N ew research published in Ophthalmology shows that real gains are being made in the fight against glaucoma. Study results indicate that in just one generation the chances of going blind from glaucoma 20 years after diagnosis has dropped by half, according to Arthur J. Sit, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Investigators were spurred to look at the rate of blindness from glaucoma by concerned patients, "because one of the questions that patients always ask is, 'Will I go blind from glaucoma?'" Dr. Sit said. While there have been previous studies on the issue, most are based on specific clinic populations, ma - ing it hard to generalize, he noted. The study here, however, built on a prominent population-based study. "The first study that caught people s attention was from the Mayo Clinic looking at Olmsted County based on patients who were diagnosed (with glaucoma) between 1965 and 1980," Dr. Sit said. "What was shocking about that study was that a very high rate of blindness occurred—around 25% of patients went blind in at least 1 eye within 20 years of being diagnosed with glaucoma." The aim of the new study was to determine whether things had gotten any better. "We always think we're on the right track, but we wanted to see if the data validated that," Dr. Sit said. Generational comparison With that in mind, investigators went back and compared glaucoma patients in the first trial from 1965 to 1980 to those diagnosed in a later period, from 1981 to 2000, who were also from Olmsted County, Minn. "The Olmsted County popu- lation tends to be fairly stable and fairly homogenous," Dr. Sit said. "So we were able to compare this one generation to the next generation." When investigators compared the two populations, they found that indeed progress had been made.