Glaucoma is one of the most common eye diseases in the world and is the leading cause of permanent vision loss.
Unlike many eye problems that cause pain or blurred vision early on, glaucoma often develops very slowly.
Many people do not notice any changes in their eyesight until the disease has already damaged the optic nerve, the part of the eye that carries visual information to the brain. Once this nerve is damaged, the lost vision cannot be restored.
This is why doctors place so much importance on finding glaucoma as early as possible.
Early treatment cannot cure the disease, but it can slow or stop further vision loss and help people keep their eyesight for many years.
Today, doctors usually estimate a person’s risk of glaucoma by looking at factors such as age, eye pressure, ethnicity, and family history.
If a close relative has glaucoma, the risk is higher. However, family history does not always tell the whole story. Some people with no known family history still develop glaucoma, while many people with affected relatives never get the disease.
A new study suggests that a person’s genes may provide a much clearer picture of their future risk. The research was carried out using the FinnGen database, one of the world’s largest health research projects.
The database includes health and genetic information from hundreds of thousands of people in Finland, including more than 21,000 people diagnosed with glaucoma. The findings were published in the journal Ophthalmology.
Instead of looking at just one gene, the researchers calculated what is called a polygenic risk score. This score combines the small effects of many different genetic variations across the genome into one overall measure of inherited risk. People with higher scores were much more likely to develop glaucoma during their lifetime.
The difference between the highest-risk and lowest-risk groups was striking. Nearly half of the people whose scores were in the highest one percent eventually developed glaucoma. By comparison, fewer than three out of every one hundred people in the lowest one percent developed the disease.
The genetic score also predicted how serious the disease would become after diagnosis. People with higher scores were more likely to need extra medicines, laser treatment, or surgery to control their glaucoma.
Dr. Joni Turunen from the University of Helsinki said these findings suggest that genetic information may identify people at high risk many years before symptoms appear. This could allow doctors to monitor these individuals more closely and diagnose glaucoma before permanent damage occurs.
The study also found that the genetic score predicted glaucoma risk much better than simply asking whether close relatives had the disease. According to senior researcher Nina Mars, combining information from many genes provides a more complete picture of inherited risk than family history alone.
The researchers believe genetic testing could eventually become part of routine healthcare. People with a high genetic risk might be invited for regular eye examinations earlier in life, while people at lower risk could avoid unnecessary screening. This approach could make healthcare more efficient and help prevent blindness in many patients.
The scientists caution that more research is still needed before genetic screening becomes routine. Future studies will need to show how genetic testing works in everyday healthcare, whether it is affordable, and whether it improves patient outcomes in different populations.
Overall, this is a very large and carefully designed study, making its findings highly convincing. However, most participants were from Finland, so additional studies in other ethnic groups will be important. The results do not mean genes alone determine whether someone will develop glaucoma, since age, health, and environmental factors also play important roles.
Even so, the research provides strong evidence that genetic risk scores could become a valuable tool for finding glaucoma earlier, starting treatment sooner, and reducing permanent vision loss.
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