Glaucoma: what every patient should know. Part 1. What is Glaucoma and how did you get it?

Abstract

The first part of the article aims to give a patient a general idea of glaucoma as a complex disease. It provides a comprehensible description of eye's anatomy, histology and physiological processes. It also explains pathological processes associated with glaucoma, why a patient is prone to take no notice of the changes and what symptoms to look out for. Stating that all forms of glaucoma are related to some degree to the pressure inside the eye, the article dwells further on the concept of intraocular pressure, its normal ranges and what happens if they are exceeded. The second part describes the various types of glaucoma and how they differ. The author emphasizes that there are almost no life-style choices that are known to be big factors in leading to either form of glaucoma. The most important things that determine glaucoma risk are how the eye was built and how it responds to changes in its environment, because the death of ganglion cells in both open-angle and angle closure glaucoma results partly from weaknesses in the tissues around them and partly from defects in the ganglion cells themselves as well as under-responses or over-responses in the normal defense mechanisms. The article explicates the idea of contributing risk factors and considers the contributing risk factors for open-angle glaucoma. Main contributing factors of open angle glaucoma - such as age, elevated eye pressure, ethnicity, hereditary background, myopia, low blood pressure, exfoliation and pigment dispersion - are specified and given further explanation. Controversial risk factors (corneal thickness, heart disease, anti-cardiolipin antibodies, migraine and Raynaud's phenomenon) as well as things that do not present risk of glaucoma development, contrary to common opinion (gender, diabetes, hypertension, diet and alcohol) are also listed.