@article {Konstantakopouloubjophthalmol-2017-310870, author = {Evgenia Konstantakopoulou and Gus Gazzard and Victoria Vickerstaff and Yuzhen Jiang and Neil Nathwani and Rachael Hunter and Gareth Ambler and Catey Bunce}, editor = {, and Ambler, Gareth and Barton, Keith and Bourne, Rupert and Broadway, David and Bunce, Catey and Buszewicz, Marta and Davis, Amanda and Garg, Anurag and Garway-heath, David and Gazzard, Gus and Hunter, Rachael and Jiang, Yuzhen and Konstantakopoulou, Evgenia and Lim, Sheng and Liput, Joanna and Manners, Timothy and Morris, Stephen and Nathwani, Neil and Rubin, Gary and Strouthidis, Nicholas and Vickerstaff, Victoria and Wilson, Sarah and Wormald, Richard and Zhu, Haogang}, title = {The laser in glaucoma and ocular hypertension (LiGHT) trial. A multicentre randomised controlled trial: baseline patient characteristics}, elocation-id = {bjophthalmol-2017-310870}, year = {2017}, doi = {10.1136/bjophthalmol-2017-310870}, publisher = {BMJ Publishing Group Ltd}, abstract = {Purpose The laser in glaucoma and ocular hypertension (LiGHT) trial aims to establish whether initial treatment with selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) is superior to initial treatment with topical medication for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) or ocular hypertension (OHT).Design LiGHT is a prospective unmasked, multicentre, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial (RCT).Participants 718 previously untreated patients with POAG or OHT were recruited at 6 UK centres between 2012 and 2014.Methods Patients were randomised to initial SLT followed by medical therapy or medical therapy without laser. Participants will be monitored for 3 years, according to routine clinical practice. The primary outcome is EQ-5D-5L. Secondary outcomes are treatment pathway cost and cost-effectiveness, Glaucoma Utility Index (GUI), Glaucoma Symptom Scale, Glaucoma Quality of Life (GQL), pathway effectiveness, visual function, safety and concordance.Results A total of 555 patients had POAG and 163 OHT; 518 patients had both eyes eligible. The mean age for patients with POAG was 64 years and for OHT 58 years. 70\% of all participants were white. Median IOP for OHT eyes was 26 mm Hg and 23 mm Hg for POAG eyes. Median baseline visual field mean deviation was -0.81 dB for OHT eyes and -2.82 dB for POAG eyes. There was no difference between patients with POAG and patients with OHT on the EQ-5D-5DL; the difference between OHT and POAG on the GUI was -0.02 and 1.23 on the GQL.Conclusions The LiGHT trial is the first RCT to compare the two treatment options in a real-world setting. The baseline characteristics of the LiGHT cohort compare well with other landmark glaucoma studies.Trial registration number ISRCTN32038223, Pre-results.}, issn = {0007-1161}, URL = {https://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2017/10/05/bjophthalmol-2017-310870}, eprint = {https://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2017/10/05/bjophthalmol-2017-310870.full.pdf}, journal = {British Journal of Ophthalmology} }