Study indicates women with diabetes may have increased risk of developing primary open-angle glaucoma.

HealthDay (5/2, Gordon) reported that "women with diabetes have about a 70 percent increased risk of developing...primary open-angle glaucoma," according to a study published in the journal Ophthalmology. Louis Pasquale, M.D., of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, examined data on "more than 76,000 women enrolled in the 20-year-long Nurses' Health Study." Joel Schuman, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, pointed out that "diabetes could increase the risk of glaucoma" by "causing elevation in pressure within the eye," or by "increas[ing] the susceptibility of the optic nerve to damage." In addition, neovascular glaucoma, which is "known to be directly related to diabetes," is caused by "a reduction of oxygen supply to the retina, which causes the retina to send out signals for more oxygen, and for new blood vessels to form." Therefore, Dr. Schuman emphasized that the "most important thing someone with diabetes can do to protect their eyes is to get regular eye exams."