External Influences Upon Ocular Homeostasis
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Postural change, Water drinking.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Intraocular Pressure. Basic parameters: 10 years — 90 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Overview
Our experiments are designed to test the overall hypothesis that position-dependent or water-dependent intra-ocular pressure (IOP) spikes occur in humans, and that these challenge ocular homeostasis.
Detailed description
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the United States, yet its pathogenesis is poorly understood. This is an insidious disorder since the loss of peripheral vision which occurs first usually is not noticed by the victim. Approximately 1 million people in the United States have glaucoma, but are not aware of it. Glaucoma is not always associated with elevated intraocular pressures so that vision screenings which measure just intraocular pressure without assessing the optic nerve will also miss these patients with glaucomatous damage. Therefore, patients are often diagnosed only when they have severe irreversible vision loss. Vascular insufficiency or abnormal autoregulation versus mechanical pressure damage has been proposed as a major factor in the development of glaucoma. Presently, therapy is based upon lowering intraocular pressure. If a contributing intermittent pressure elevation factor can be elucidated and characterized, specific treatment modalities may then be developed and their effectiveness can be monitored.
Interventions
- Behavioral Postural change
Intraocular pressures, blood pressures, and retinal thicknesses are measured with postural changes - Behavioral Water drinking
Intraocular pressures, blood pressures, and retinal thicknesses are measured with water drinking.
Primary outcome measures
- Change in Intraocular Pressure [Time frame: Within 1 day]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Patients with autonomic dysfunction
- Patients with open-angle glaucoma
- Patients with normal-pressure glaucoma
- Normal subjects
Exclusion criteria
- Medical students
- Prisoners
- Pregnant women
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- Non-randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- Vanderbilt University — Nashville
Publications
- Phillips L, Robertson D, Melson MR, Garland EM, Joos KM. Pediatric ptosis as a sign of treatable autonomic dysfunction. Am J Ophthalmol. 2013 Aug;156(2):370-374.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2013.03.009. Epub 2013 Apr 24. PMID 23622564
- Shibao CA, Joos K, Phillips JA 3rd, Cogan J, Newman JH, Hamid R, Meiler J, Capra J, Sheehan J, Vetrini F, Yang Y, Black B, Diedrich A, Roberston D, Biaggioni I. Familial Autonomic Ganglionopathy Caused by Rare CHRNA3 Genetic Variants. Neurology. 2021 Jul 13;97(2):e145-e155. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000012143. Epub 2021 May 4. PMID 33947782
Identifiers
NCT: NCT00338065 · Vanderbilt IRB# 010436