Glaucoma in People with Thyroid Problems?

We shouldn’t speak of ‘cause-and-effect’, but the demonstration of an association between thyroid malfunction and the occurrence of glaucoma should be a good reason to have a check-up of one if you suffer from the other. A report in the British Journal of Ophthalmology describes the results of a large population study.

The data came from 12,300+ patients in a UK National Health Service survey. They were asked if they’d ever been diagnosed with a thyroid problem or glaucoma. Glaucoma was reported by 4.6% of the participants, while 11.9% reported a history of thyroid problems.

Among those with glaucoma, 6.5% said they had a thyroid problem, and 4.4% said they hadn’t. This difference is statistically highly significant, i.e. it can hardly be caused by chance alone. It means that patients diagnosed with thyroid problems were 38% more likely to have been diagnosed with glaucoma.

What lies behind this association? The study researchers speculate that thyroid disease may lead to chemical deposits in the vessels bringing blood to the eye, leading to raised ocular pressure.

A weakness of this study lies in the phrase “thyroid problems”. Were they over- or under-activity of the gland (hyper- or hypothyroidism)? If it was both, the results suggest a common cause for the thyroid “problem” and glaucoma, rather than one causing the other. Anyhow, it makes sense for people with either type of thyroid problem to see an ophthalmologist at regular intervals, just to be sure there’s not another health problem to deal with.