Am I likely to have glaucoma?

[AngusSensArmy]

I am 19 years of age.

I went for an eye exam today.

On the puff o meter I got pressures of 20 on the right eye and 26 on the left.

To note I was very flinchy before the puffs, and was bracing myself for it, he said that could lead to a higher reading then normal. Do you agree that the puff o meter can be high when one is flinchy?

The doctor looked at my optic nerves and told me on the right I have a cup disc ratio of 0.5 and 0.7 on the left. He told me that those numbers are high but it could be "just the way my eyes are built." He told me he sees patients with similar ratios every day and many don't have glaucoma.

Where do I stand statistically?

My right eye is -0.75 and left is -1.00 for glasses.

He said it's very rare at my age.

As a result he ordered a field test for 2 weeks time and I'm gonna see how that goes. I am worried about Glaucoma. I did do my own perepheral vision test by extending my arms outwards and my thumbs are still in my field of vision when my arms are fully extended to my sides 90 degrees, they are even in the field slightly behind me. when I walk by something with forward central fixation it remains in the field until it's a bit behind me. I think that's good, do you agree or disagree?

    22 hours ago
    - 3 days left to answer.

Additional Details
I also see star bursts from LED's and halos around lights. It seems to have gotten worse recently, but that could also be me noticing it more. Also I see a slight ghosted double vertical image on really bright screens (white text on a black background.) Headlights seem brighter then ever. Each eye sees these halos equally.

During the day I have very little to complain about, it's mainly at night or during really cloudy days that I notice acuity issues.

I do have mild myopia right now (-1 and -0.75) and I figure that the description above has more to do with refractive error then Glaucoma. Is this a correct assumption?

[AngusSensArmy]

I have more concerning news, I had an eye exam 6 weeks prior to the one above and I just found out the results were:

Pressure on the right was 20mmHG the left was 24 which was similar to the 26 I got the other day.

Both cup discs were 0.5 according to this doctor at the time and healthy and symmetrical.

More recently the left pressure was 26 and the right 20 I think and the right eye was 0.5 and the left 0.7.

I have heard that an optic nerve exam doesn't always have the same result from observer to observer and even eye to eye with the same observer. Are there any flaws with the optic nerve exam?

Also they both came from an optometrist.

What I am concerned about are the correlations in the data.

Is it unusual for an eye with glaucoma to change CD ratio from 0.5 to 0.7 in a mere 6 weeks especially with a pressure of just 24 to 26? Or is likely to be an inaccurate observation somewhere along the line?

[Doreen Fazio, M.D.]

It is very unlikely that you have glaucoma, but since you saw an optometrist, you need a good exam with an ophthalmologist (EyeMD).  The air puff test is not the most accurate way of testing eye pressure.  Tensing, flinching, or breath holding during the eye pressure measurement can artificially elevate the eye pressure; try to relax the next time it is measured, don't squeeze your lids, and breathe normally.  You also need a gonioscopy (test of the eye's drainage angle), pachymetry (measurement of corneal thickness), visual field, and detailed exam of the optic nerve plus either HRT or OCT to document structure.  You are only mildly myopic; glasses will help you drive, especially at night.  You will not need the glasses to read or work on a computer.  While it does sound as if your peripheral vision is fine, a formal visual field test is still needed.