Glaucoma is a serious eye disease that slowly damages vision and can lead to permanent blindness if it is not treated.
It is sometimes called the “silent thief of sight” because people often do not notice any symptoms until significant vision has already been lost.
The disease happens when pressure builds up inside the eye and harms the optic nerve, which carries visual information from the eye to the brain.
Once the optic nerve is damaged, the lost vision cannot be restored. For this reason, early detection is extremely important, yet many people around the world are never screened because testing can be expensive and requires trained specialists.
A new study suggests that artificial intelligence, often called AI, could help solve this problem by making glaucoma screening faster, cheaper, and more widely available.
The research was presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Orlando, Florida. Scientists reported that a specially trained AI program was able to identify people with glaucoma more accurately than human graders in many cases.
The research team, led by Professor Anthony Khawaja from the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, compared how well AI and human experts could detect glaucoma in a large group of participants. More than 6,300 people took part in the study, and nearly 700 of them had glaucoma in at least one eye.
The AI program correctly identified glaucoma between 88 percent and 90 percent of the time. Human graders, who were trained to examine eye images, achieved accuracy rates between 79 percent and 81 percent. These results suggest that AI could become a powerful tool to assist doctors rather than replace them.
In the study, both the AI system and human graders examined images of the back of the eye. They focused on a measurement called the vertical cup-to-disc ratio. This measure shows changes in the optic nerve that occur when eye pressure damages the nerve.
As glaucoma progresses, the shape of this area changes, and careful measurement can reveal early warning signs of disease. The AI program learned to recognize these patterns by studying thousands of images during training.
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide, especially among older adults. Risk increases with age, family history, and certain medical conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
Because the disease often develops without pain or noticeable vision problems at first, many people do not seek medical help until it is too late. Regular eye examinations are the best way to detect glaucoma early, but access to eye specialists can be limited in many regions.
The researchers noted that only about 11 percent of the eyes examined in the study were suspected of having glaucoma, which is similar to what doctors might see during routine screening in the general population.
This makes the findings more realistic for real-world use. They also believe that accuracy could improve even further if the AI system includes additional information, such as measurements of eye pressure or patient risk factors.
Current treatments for glaucoma aim to lower pressure inside the eye to slow or stop damage to the optic nerve. This is usually done with medicated eye drops, although laser treatment or surgery may be needed in more advanced cases. While treatment can preserve remaining vision, it cannot restore sight that has already been lost. This is why early detection is so critical.
Experts hope that AI screening tools could be used in community clinics, pharmacies, or even mobile health units, making eye care accessible to people who might otherwise never receive testing.
By quickly identifying individuals who need further evaluation, AI could help doctors focus on patients at highest risk and prevent more cases of avoidable blindness.
Although more studies are needed before such systems become widely used, the findings offer hope that technology can help protect vision on a global scale. Combining AI with traditional medical care may allow earlier diagnosis, better treatment, and improved quality of life for millions of people threatened by glaucoma.
If you care about eye health, please read studies about how vitamin B may help fight vision loss, and MIND diet may reduce risk of vision loss disease.
For more information about eye disease, please see recent studies about how to protect your eyes from glaucoma, and results showing this eye surgery may reduce dementia risk.
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