PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 462 - 25 Sep 2004

Lower IOP correlates with stabledisease, lower treatment costs

The early management of disease by a glaucomaspecialist "could reduce the economic burden oftreatment and could improve the probability ofstabilizing a patient", say researchers from the US andCanada.

Using data obtained from patient charts (n = 265), theresearchers retrospectively determined the associationbetween intraocular pressure (IOP) control levels anddisease stability, and the cost of treating primary open-angle glaucoma; patients were classified as having mild,moderate or severe disease based on visual field meandeviation scores.* The findings suggest that there is anassociation between lower IOP control levels and ahigher probability of stable disease, "and a decrease inthe cost of treatment", note the researchers. In patientswith mild disease, the cost of treatment did not changesignificantly with a change in mean IOP; however, "therewas a trend towards a higher correlation between meanIOP and the cost of treatment in patients with severedisease", they add.* Funding for the study was provided by Alcon Research Ltd, US.

Vicente C, et al. Association between mean intraocular pressure, disease stabilityand cost of treating glaucoma in Canada. Current Medical Research and Opinion20: 1245-1251, No. 8, Aug 2004 800989176

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 25 Sep 2004 No. 4621173-5503/10/0462-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved