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Buffalo, NY -- Eye
Care & Vision Associates,
LLP (ECVA), a full-service comprehensive eye care medical practice
with four offices in Western New York, now utilizes pachymetry,
a state-of-the-art technology, to help determine a patient's
five-year risk for developing glaucoma.
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of
preventable blindness in the United States. It afflicts roughly three million Americans, nearly half of whom
are unaware they have the disease. (African-Americans are six to eight
times more likely to develop glaucoma than Caucasians.) Glaucoma begins
with the loss of peripheral vision and cannot be cured or reversed, though
it can be controlled if detected early.
A recent study - the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study - revealed that central
corneal thickness (CCT) plays an important and significant role in the early
detection of glaucoma. A normal human cornea is about 550 microns thick centrally,
and a full millimeter thick peripherally. Patients with thinner-than-average
corneas are at greater risk for developing glaucoma. The doctors at
ECVA use a pocket-sized pachymeter to quickly and painlessly measure a patient's
CCT to determine the level of risk and then begin treatment much earlier.
"Pachymetry allows us to more accurately assess a patient's risk for developing
glaucoma much earlier," says George Pfohl, M.D., a board-certified ophthalmologist
with ECVA and clinical assistant professor of ophthalmology at SUNY Buffalo. "We
are then able to determine an individual's need for treatment and, therefore,
protect that individual's sight that much longer."
Pachymetry is also useful in a variety of other applications, such as determining
a patient's potential candidacy for LASIK surgery and performing checks for extended
wear contact lens patients.
The philosophy of Eye Care & Vision Associates, LLP is to bring the highest
quality medical care possible to each patient, and to provide that care in a
manner consistent with the patient's wishes. This is accomplished through
ECVA's four full-service, state-of-the-art offices and three full-service optical
shops in Williamsville, Buffalo, Hamburg and Niagara Falls, NY.
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