Glaucoma

Cellular Basis for Glaucoma

Researchers at Catalyst for a Cure (CFC) consortium, a division of the Glaucoma Research Foundation, have announced their continuing work in 2011: studying how and why retinal ganglion cells degenerate in people with glaucoma. Retinal ganglion cells are types of neuron located near the inner surface eye’s retina.  They receive visual images from the photoreceptors and transmit the information to the brain.
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An editorial in Glaucoma Today speaks to doctors about being careful to make sure patients understand all of the medical information set before them so that they can make informed choices and best take care of their own conditions.  The author, Eydie Miller-Ellis, MD, gives her colleagues the following check list to keep in mind:
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Hypothyroidism

A study of 600 men with recent a diagnosis of glaucoma were shown to be twice as likely to have hypothyroidism than a similar portion of the population without the eye disease.  Researchers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Birmingham, Alabama assert that there seems to be a convincing correlation be correlation between glaucoma and an under-active thyroid.

When this study was published the authors were not ready to state whether thyroid replacement therapy would help fend off glaucoma.
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Anticardiolipin Levels

A recent Canadian study on the progression of glaucoma shows that age and abnormal anticardiolipin antibody levels are key factors in the decrease of sufferers’ field of vision. Anticardiolipin antibodies are associated with such diseases as lupus, syphilis, and antiphospholipid syndrome, but the presence of these antibodies does not necessarily indicate that a patient has any of these conditions. According to study authors, “While this finding (regarding anticardiolipin antibodies [ACA]) is significant, its practical implications are unclear as only 5.5% of the tested patients had abnormal ACA levels.”
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A recent study out of the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto New indicates that glaucoma patients can reduce intraocular pressure by sleeping with their head elevated at a 30-degree angle as opposed to sleeping with their heads flat on a mattress.  This resulted in a 20% lower IOP.  Study participants exhibited no differences in blood pressure or ocular perfusion pressure between the two positions.  Ocular perfusion is the relationship between IOP and blood pressure – another glaucoma marker.

Previous studies had established that raising the head lowers IOP and that lying down supine results in higher IOP.  Scientists found that comparing lying down to a 45 degree raised position from the horizontal results in a 10% to 15% lower IOP.
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