SETTING: The epidemiological Study named “EPIGOAL Study” were managed by Outpatient eye specialists working in Milan and its province belonging to the GOAL group (Gruppo Oculisti Ambulatoriali Liberi).
METHODS: Daily records from a total of 13190 patients (from March 2014 to December 2014) were collected on standardised data sheet that reports the main representative ocular pathologies (Fig.1). The pathologies were clustered and splitted as follows: Ocular surface, Glaucoma, Posterior segment and Patients who underwent surgical procedures. Furthermore taking in account the results from the analysis of those data a new data sheet were setted to collect data from 2608 patients affected by retinal disease such as Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Diabetic retinopathy (DR) (from March 2015 to December 2015) (Fig.2). For the diabetic retinophaty were evaluated how many patients were affected by the Proliferative form and how many patients form the Non-proliferative form (Fig.3).
About the Age related macular degeneration we divided the patients by using the Wisconsin grade scale for the severity of the disease (From Category 1 to 4- AREDS study) (Fig.4).
RESULTS: From the analysis of the data collected on 2014 we found that on 13190 patients the 28% were affected by pathologies related to the anterior segment, 27% refractive errors, 12% glaucoma, 17% pathologies related to the posterior side of the eye and 16% were patients that underwent to surgical procedure. The analysis performed on 2015 focalized on the diabetic retinopathy and on AMD showed that on 2608 patients evaluated 927 (35.5%) were affected by Diabetic Retinopathy and 1681 (64.5%) by AMD. Specifically in the cluster of patients with DR, the 81% were represented by the proliferative form and the 19% by the Non-proliferative. In the AMD group a 36% were those patients belonging to the Category 2 form (Early AMD), 30% to the Category 3(Intermediate AMD) and 34% to the Category 4 (Advanced AMD)
CONCLUSION: The EPIGOAL Study, conducted by the Outpatient specialists, represents the first epidemiological study on the national area to establish the prevalence of the main ocular diseases, focalizing the attention on DR and AMD . The principal aim was to define, on a big cluster of patients, which are the general characteristic of this patients to develop an effective primary and secondary prevention plan.
FINAL DISCOSURES: There are no financial interests.
Prevalence of the main ophthalmic diseases and focus on diabetic retinopathy and age related macular degeneration. Overview of actual findings and design of the epidemiological EPIGOAL Study.
Giulia Mandelli MD, Luca Boerci MD, Sonia Palmieri MD, Danilo Mazzacane MD.
