Clinical relevance of ANS dysfunction in glaucoma management.

Research for autonomic nervous system dysfunctions ( ANS) in glaucoma patients has a two-fold interest for the glaucoma specialist. On one hand, it provides the physician with a set of results that demonstrate the extent of the underlying systemic and ocular dysfunction. These data may provide clues as to why the disease is continuing to progress and may therefore help guide glaucoma management. While strategies towards correcting these imbalances have not been definitely proven to affect the outcome of glaucoma, there are an increasing number of anedoctal data that suggests they may have a positive impact in disease progression. Moreover, signalling the extent of the systemic dysregulation may help identify other, non-ocular related problems and thus be ultimately beneficial to the patients in the long term. More research is still needed to idenfity which patients are more likely to benefict from undergoing ANS function tests and - should any dysfunction be found - what would be the most consistent treatment strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]