Inter-ethnic variation of ocular traits-design and methodology of comparison study among American Caucasians, American Chinese and mainland Chinese.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To summarize the design and methodology of a multi-center study. With the existed ethnic differences of glaucoma, this survey will explore the differences with regard to anterior and posterior ocular segment parameters between Caucasians and Chinese. METHODS: In this study, four cohorts including American Caucasians and American Chinese from San Francisco, southern mainland Chinese from Guangzhou, and northern mainland Chinese from Beijing were prospectively enrolled for a series of eye examinations and tests from May 2008 to December 2010. A total of 120 subjects including 15 of each gender in each age decade from 40s to 70s were recruited for each group. Data of the following tests were collected a questionnaire eliciting systemic and ocular disease history, blood pressure, presenting and best corrected visual acuity, auto-refraction, Goldmann applanation tonometry, gonioscopy, A-scan, anterior segment optical coherence tomography (ASOCT), ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM), visual field (VF), Heidelberg retinal tomography (HRT), OCT for optic nerve, and digital fundus photography. CONCLUSION: this study will provide insights to the etiologies of glaucoma especially PACG through inter-ethnic comparisons of relevant ocular anatomic and functional parameters.