Purpose: To determine the prevalence of gonioscopically narrow anterior chamber angles in a Filipino-American clinic population.
Patients and methods: The records of 122 consecutive, new, self-declared Filipino-American patients examined in a comprehensive ophthalmology clinic in Vallejo, California were reviewed retrospectively. After exclusion, 222 eyes from 112 patients remained for analysis. Data were collected for anterior chamber angle grade as determined by gonioscopy (Shaffer system), age, sex, manifest refraction (spherical equivalent), intraocular pressure, and cup-to-disk ratio. Data from both eyes of patients were included and modeled using standard linear mixed-effects regression. As a comparison, data were also collected from a group of 30 consecutive White patients from the same clinic. After exclusion, 50 eyes from 25 White patients remained for comparison.
Results: At least 1 eye of 24% of Filipino-American patients had a narrow anterior chamber angle (Shaffer grade ≤ 2). Filipino-American angle grade significantly decreased with increasingly hyperopic refraction (P=0.007) and larger cup-to-disk ratio (P=0.038). Filipino-American women had significantly decreased angle grades compared with men (P=0.028), but angle grade did not vary by intraocular pressure or age (all, P≥ 0.059).
Conclusions: Narrow anterior chamber angles are highly prevalent in Filipino-American patients in our clinic population.