Influence of topical corticosteroids on intraocular pressure in Africans

The effect of corticosteroids was assessed in 52 bed-ridden Africans. Simple scattergrams of the results show no clustering of data to form different genetic groups, although this might have been expected. Comparison of data reported by Armaly² and by Becker and Hahn⁴ with our finding of 17% corticosteroid response indicates that the prevalence of glaucoma in Africans is about half that in Europeans. This suggests that the African population could be divided into the three genetic groups into which Caucasians are classified, but there would be only half as many heterozygotes and corticosteroid-positive homozygotes in Africans as in Caucasians.