“Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness and low vision. Recent estimates indicate that, globally, there are more than 68 million affected patients, of which 3.61 million are blind and 4.14 million with serious visual impairments due to the disease.” Carlo Nucci, professor of diseases of the visual system and vice-rector of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, said this, speaking at the conference for World Sight Day, organized by Iapb Italia Ets in collaboration with the Italian Union blind and visually impaired, which was held today at the Ministry of Health. The conference – we read in a note – was an important moment because experts, in the presence of the institutions, addressed topics that are now essential for ophthalmology such as the use and benefits of advanced technologies, clinical applications of teleophthalmology, visual telerehabilitation, role of artificial intelligence in ophthalmological clinical research and new technologies in glaucoma.
An insidious disease, because it is often silent until it is too late and for which prevention and early diagnosis are essential, “glaucoma – explains Nucci – is a progressive optic neuropathy in which high intraocular pressure is the main risk factor and which determines a progressive death of the cells of the retina and of the axonal fibers that constitute the optic nerve” which can also affect the central areas of the central nervous system. “The disease has a strong impact on the patient’s quality of life – underlines the professor – because it progressively reduces the visual field and limits daily activities, but it also has a strong economic impact on the National Health Service. In Italy the incidence of 0.3% of the disease is in line with the rest of the world, but the most significant data is that in 2020 it is still estimated that blind subjects due to this pathology exceed 3.5 million and visually impaired people exceed 4 million. In recent years there has been a decrease in patients blind due to glaucoma, but a drastic increase in patients with severe vision loss.”
In his speech Nucci also illustrated the most recent technological innovations in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. In particular, he presented clinical evidence to support the use of Oct, the latest generation computerized optical tomography for the early diagnosis of morphological alterations induced by the disease, underlining the prospects that such studies open up for the application of artificial intelligence in the diagnosis of glaucoma.
In Italy over 3 million people suffer or are at risk of diseases that can lead to low vision and blindness such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. “Over the course of ten years – underlines Mario Barbuto, president of Iapb Italia Ets – the users of the iapb.it website have grown 3 times: from 600 thousand to 2.1 million. This is indeed a sign of increased awareness, but also a symptom that visual health questions are not answered in public health and that people are pushed to look for the answers themselves and elsewhere”.
On World Sight Day, thanks to Iapb Italia Ets and the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, events are planned in over 100 cities, in 102 out of 107 Italian provinces, with distribution of information material and free eye checks. Information on giornomondialedellavista.it
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