Risk factors of glaucoma

By Judith Whitehead – Contributing Writer For the most part, glaucoma is an eye disease that damages the optic nerve of the eye and can rob peripheral vision slowly and methodically, without pain. This is why it is so important to get regular eye exams done by an eye doctor. Either an optometrist or ophthalmologist who is a medical doctor can perform this testing. The optic nerve has a measurable size that can be detected during an eye examination. The ratio between the “cup” to the “disc” inside the eye determines if you are at risk for developing glaucoma. A person can have risk factors for developing glaucoma and never develop the disease. If the size of the optic nerve is greater than .4 mm, then you have a risk factor. Other risk factors are hereditary causes, injury to the eye, and an elevated intraocular pressure of greater than 21. Glaucoma also is more prevalent among African Americans and older people. There are many types of glaucoma. The most … [Read more...] about January – National Glaucoma Awareness Month – looks to address the ‘Sneak Thief of Vision’

The complaints said the lenses can get cloudy after a few years and some patients have been forced to undergo new operations to remove them, SVT reports. The artificial lens Lentis has been used primarily on patients who wanted to stop relying on glasses, and also in some operations for cataracts. But some of the people who received these lenses reported cloudy and less sharp vision afterwards. In these cases, the lenses were covered in small white spots. Swedish eye surgery provider Memira told SVT it had implanted 27,000 Lentis lenses before ceasing to use them. So far it has had to remove 155 cloudy lenses. On two occasions, in 2014 and 2017, the manufacturer Oculentis recalled certain Lentis models due to the risk of cloudiness. According to Oculentis, this may have been caused by phosphate remnants from a cleaning solution used during the manufacturing process. A survey by SVT showed that the Medical Products Agency received more than 400 complaints of opacification suspected … [Read more...] about Swedish watchdog receives more than 400 complaints of artificial eye lenses

(Reuters Health) - In people who already have a genetic vulnerability, small-particle air pollution known as black carbon may raise the risk of developing glaucoma, a new study suggests. Researchers found that in older men with genetic variations that made them especially susceptible to oxidative stress, long-term exposure to black carbon, a pollutant linked to vehicle emissions and other products of combustion, was associated with higher pressures in the eye, according to the study published in JAMA Ophthalmology. “Oftentimes, when we think about glaucoma we think about risk factors like age and genetic predisposition and we don’t think about the environment,” said the study’s lead author, Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem, an MD/PhD candidate at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. “But one thing we’re starting to appreciate more is how the environment impacts health outcomes.” One area in which there hasn’t been a lot of research is the … [Read more...] about Small-particle air pollution may raise glaucoma risk in some