Academy Awards Cutting-Edge Glaucoma Researcher $50,000 Prize

NEW YORK CITY, July 25 ??? The New York Academy of Medicine has awarded the 2003 Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize to a physician and researcher who proved that glaucoma can be prevented or delayed by applying eye drops to the eye daily. The prestigious $50,000 award has been bestowed upon Dr. Michael A. Kass of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, recognizing this significant advancement in the fight against one of the world???s principal causes of blindness.

Kass was lead author of a June 2002 research paper in the journal Archives of Ophthalmology describing results of the landmark Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study. The study conclusively proved that prescription eye drops are effective at reducing ???elevated intraocular pressure,??? also known as ocular hypertension, a risk factor for glaucoma. Before this five-year study was complete, there was no consensus on whether routine eye drop application could thwart the onset of this vision-stealing disease, even though eye drops have been used to lower eye pressure for more than a century.

???Eye drop treatment for ocular hypertension has been controversial,??? said Kass, Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Washington University. ???Some ophthalmologists and optometrists prescribed the medication because they believed in it, and other people said, ???there???s no proof.??? People in the health care industry and government were starting to ask, ???we have so little proof that treating glaucoma matters, should we be paying for this???? ???

Kass and colleagues at 22 clinical centers nationwide monitored 1,636 glaucoma-free 40- to 80-year-olds who had elevated intraocular pressure. Approximately half of the participants gave themselves daily eye drops to treat their condition; the others were not treated. Eye drop users enjoyed a 22.5 percent drop in eye pressure after five years, while pressure among non-users dropped by only four percent. Eye drop users were also far less likely to develop glaucoma after five years, the researchers found. Only 4.4 percent of eye drop users developed a common type of glaucoma called ???primary open-angle glaucoma??? during that time, while 9.5 percent of non-drop users developed the disease.

???Kass???s work clearly demonstrates that eye drops can help those who are at risk for glaucoma, which makes it deserving of the Rudin Prize,??? said Dr. Alan R. Fleischman, Senior Vice President of the Academy.

Winning the Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize is an honor that further validates the enormous dedication of patients, doctors and technicians who collaborated on this project, Kass said. ???We think it???s an important study and we???re delighted that it???s been recognized,??? he said. ???A long-term study like this takes a lot of commitment by a lot of people.???

Glaucoma has left more than 130,000 Americans legally blind. An estimated 3 to 6 million U.S. residents are ???glaucoma suspects,??? which means they have elevated intraocular pressure but have not yet developed glaucoma. Elevated intraocular pressure occurs when the eye loses its ability to drain fluid, causing the eye???s internal pressure to rise. This pressure can damage the optic nerves that carry visual signals to the brain, leading to vision loss. Because a large percentage of optic nerve fibers are irreversibly damaged before glaucoma can be detected, it is critical to identify elevated pressure at an early stage. Patients cannot ???feel??? the pressure; it can only be detected by an eye exam.

Kass cautioned that not all patients with elevated intraocular pressure will develop glaucoma and therefore, only higher-risk patients should be treated with eye drops. This study found that high-risk patients include African-Americans, the elderly, those with a thin cornea, those with significantly elevated eye pressure, and those whose optic nerve has a certain appearance. These telltale eye traits can be detected in a routine eye exam.

The Academy awards the Rudin Prize for the most outstanding glaucoma research published during the previous year. The award was established in 1995 and is funded by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc. Recipients are chosen by an international selection committee and approved by the Academy Board of Trustees. Dr. David H. Abramson, chairman of the Academy???s Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize Committee, said Kass???s research represents ???the best of the Rudin Family tradition.???

???Dr. Kass was able to organize physicians and scientists from many institutions and get them to work together for a common goal,??? said Abramson, a clinical professor of ophthalmology at The New York Presbyterian Hospital. ???Their research is now the cornerstone for clinical management of glaucoma worldwide and highlights what we know and still need to learn about the management of this potentially blinding disease.???

The study was supported by grants from the National Eye Institute and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, both at the National Institutes of Health; Merck Research Laboratories, and Research to Prevent Blindness. The New York Academy of Medicine is a non-profit institution founded in 1847 that is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through research education and advocacy with a particular focus on urban populations, especially the disadvantaged.

Reporters: The 22 clinical centers participating in this study are located in the following states, and lead investigators at each center are available for interviews: California (La Jolla, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco); Florida (Miami); Georgia (Atlanta, 2); Kentucky (Louisville); Maryland (Baltimore), Michigan (Detroit, 2; Ann Arbor); Minnesota (Rochester); Missouri (St. Louis); New York (New York); Ohio (Columbus, Euclid); Oregon (Portland); Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 2); Texas (Houston); Washington, D.C.

Posted on July 25, 2003

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Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
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