Phenylthiourea Taste Testing and Glaucoma

The genetics of primary open angle glaucoma

“…Thirty per cent of the normal population are unable to taste the chemical (non-tasters). In contrast, 53% of patients with POAG have been shown to be non-tasters compared with only 17% of patients with narrow angle glaucoma, a statistically significant difference 4. This raised the possibility of a common genetic basis or even a causal interrelation.…”

“…2 Our understanding of the genetics of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) may not be as clear as with some other ophthalmic conditions but, nevertheless, there have been great advances since the last review about the genetics of glaucoma published in the BJO in 1980 3. At that time, our knowledge was based on a number of conflicting studies attempting to link human polymorphisms, such as the ability to taste phenyl thiocarbamide, with glaucoma 4. Nowadays, the positions of genes responsible for various forms of glaucoma have been localised, not just to individual chromosomes, but to specific small regions on those chromosomes.…”

Is primary open‐angle glaucoma part of a generalized sensory neurodegeneration? A review of the evidence

“…An early study by Becker and Morgan (1964) suggested that there is a higher proportion of bitter ‘non‐tasters’ among individuals with glaucoma. They further reported that the severity is most often worse in open‐angle cases or suspects 126 . This finding was later contradicted using the same methods, with the conclusion that taste sensitivity was similar across all glaucoma groups and controls, of a similar age, and that the testing of gustatory function is unreliable without consideration of other factors known to affect taste sensitivity, such as smoking, ethnicity and diet 127 …”

Primary open‐angle glaucoma in 2 monozygotic twin pairs

“…These include the cupidisc ratio of the optic nerve head (Armaly 1967a), intraocular pressure (Armaly 196713) and outflow facility (Armaly et al 1968). T h e POAG patients are also found to be more often phenyltiocarbamide non-tasters as com-pared to population distribution (Becker & Morton 1964). The association of HLA antigens with POAG has showed disagreeing results (Dausset & Svejgaard 1977;Shin & Becker 1977).…”