Your article might make one think there is no other way to diagnose narrow-angle glaucoma. For decades a three-mirror lens has been used for gonioscopy to accurately diagnose narrow-angle glaucoma when used by a competent ophthalmologist. Additionally, optical coherence tomography has been available for many years to look at the angle created by the cornea and the iris. The Duke instrument is merely an adaptation of existing technology.

The article was misleading in that it might make a patient believe that the diagnosis of narrow-angle glaucoma is easily missed and that such a research tool is necessary for the diagnosis and treatment of narrow-angle glaucoma. A comprehensive eye exam by an experienced board-certified ophthalmologist will lead to the diagnosis of narrow-angle glaucoma if it is present.

To alarm individuals in this way, to promote Duke as the seat of knowledge and to make patients think they need to leave Wake County for accurate diagnosis and treatment of narrow-angle glaucoma is unconscionable.

Christopher Paul Fleming, M.D.

Cary