Risk Factors That Can Lead To Glaucoma

Heart Disease

An individual affected by heart disease has an increased risk of developing glaucoma than the general population. While most cases of glaucoma are caused by elevated intraocular pressure in the eye, this risk factor does not directly involve intraocular pressure. Heart disease is a term used to define a range of different conditions that affect the function or structure of the heart. A disease of the blood vessels, congenital heart defects, and heart rhythm abnormalities are all considered to be heart disease.

Some individuals affected by heart disease have poor circulation in the smallest blood vessels around the body. It is thought this risk factor is based on poor microvascular circulation in the vessels responsible for supplying oxygen and nutrients to the cells that make up an individual's retina and ocular nerve. The retina is the part of the eye that absorbs light focused on the lens and translates this visual information into neural signals transmitted through the optic nerve to the brain for interpretation. When sections of the cells in the retina and nerve fibers that feed the ocular nerve begin to die as a result of oxygen deprivation, the affected individual develops glaucoma or ocular nerve damage.