Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: showed higher AD risk with glaucoma, 1 Zhao found no association, 2 while Jiang 3 and Wang 4 confirmed increased dementia risk (see Tables 1 and 2 for summary). EpidEmiological links w i t h parkinson's disEasEParkinson's disease (PD) involves loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra.Epidemiological data indicate a potential association with glaucoma.Bin Lin MM et al. (2025) reported higher PD risk among glaucoma patients.5 Robbins et al. demonstrated microvascular and choroidal changes in PD eyes that resemble glaucomatous damage.6 Glaucoma may increase PD risk.5 OCTA studies show overlapping microvascular changes in PD and glaucoma (Tables 1 and 2 for summary).6 EpidEmiological links w i t h multiplE sclErosisMultiple sclerosis is an autoimmune demyelinating disorder with optic nerve involvement.Retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thinning occurs in MS, overlapping with glaucoma.Yeh et al. showed that sectoral RNFL analysis can help differentiate glaucomatous from introduction a n d rationalE Glaucoma is a chronic, progressive optic neuropathy characterized by the death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and the loss of visual field.It is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, affecting over 70 million people, with prevalence expected to increase with the aging of the population.Traditionally, glaucoma was thought of mainly as a disease of intraocular pressure (IOP) dysregulation, but the last few decades have reframed it as a multifactorial neurodegenerative condition due to several systemic and local risk factors.Similarly, various systemic neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS) impose immense healthcare and socioeconomic burdens.The retina and optic nerve represent the anterior continuation of the central nervous system (CNS); thus, the concept of the eye as a "window to the brain" emanates.This has positioned the eye as a privileged site for noninvasive investigations of neurodegenerative processes, using state-of-the-art imaging modalities such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative optic neuropathy in nature.The concept of the "eye being the window to the brain" underlies its commonality with systemic diseases such as AD, PD, and MS. EpidEmiological links w i t h alzhEimEr's disEasEAlzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, is characterized by extracellular amyloid-β deposition, tau accumulation, and synaptic loss.Multiple studies have explored whether glaucoma increases the risk of AD.Ekström reported that open-angle glaucoma was associated with higher AD risk. 1 Zhao et al., however, found no robust association. 2 Jiang et al. demonstrated a significantly increased risk of AD in glaucoma patients, 3 and Wang et al. confirmed glaucoma's link with dementia in >9 million individuals.4 Studies report conflicting results:
Authors: Priti Singh, Samendra Karkhur, Vidhya Verma, Saroj Gupta, Arushi Beri
Institution: All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal
Language: English
Subfield: Ophthalmology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7155188619