Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a disease that causes damage to the eye. If a person who has glaucoma does not get help from a doctor, they will not be able to see.

This disease happens because of increased pressure in the eye. The pressure causes damage to the optic nerve. This can cause loss of vision, and may also be painful.

Sometimes, it is hard for a person to know that they have glaucoma. The vision can be lost very slowly. When sight is lost from glaucoma, it cannot be recovered.

There are two kinds of glaucoma, the kind that happens very fast, and the kind that happens slowly, over a long time.

Glaucoma is the second most common cause of blindness in the world.

 Genetic component 
There is often a hereditary tendency to glaucoma. A family history of glaucoma is a risk factor. The relative risk of having what is called "primary open-angle glaucoma" (POAG) is increased about two- to four-fold for people who have a sibling with glaucoma.Myron Yanoff & Jay S. Duker 2009. Ophthalmology. 3rd ed, Mosby Elsevier, p. 1096.   Glaucoma, particularly primary open-angle glaucoma, is associated with mutations in several different genes

Also, the likelihood of it happening is different in different populations.Wang N, Wu H, Fan Z. 2002. Primary angle closure glaucoma in Chinese and Western populations. Chin Med J. 115 (11): 1706–15.  Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in African Americans, who have higher rates of primary open angle glaucoma.Sommer, Alfred et al 1991. Racial differences in the cause-specific prevalence of blindness in East Baltimore. New England Journal of Medicine 325 (20) 1412–1417. 

 References 

Category:Ophthalmology
Category:Diseases and disorders of the eye