Angle-closure glaucoma: relation between lens thickness, anterior chamber depth and age.

Ultrasonographic biometric measurements (axial length of the globe, lens thickness and anterior chamber depth) were taken in 89 eyes of patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma (ACG). Analysis of the mean values showed an apparently abnormal pattern of growth of the lens, its thickness increasing at an accelerated rate between the fourth and sixth decades, then not increasing for about a decade, and finally increasing again but at a slower pace. The anterior chamber depth, however, appeared to continue decreasing at a constant rate. This suggests that forward movement of the lens, probably secondary to loosening of the zonules, is also a factor in the shallowing of the anterior chamber. The frequency of acute attacks of ACG peaked twice, first in the presbyopic years, at ages 53 to 58, and then in the senile years, at ages 63 to 70; no attacks occurred during the decade in which the lens seemed not to be growing.