EP #18: Decoding Secondary Glaucoma: Insights and Prevention During Awareness Month

Unlock the mysteries of secondary glaucoma with us, your hosts Dr. Thuy Nguyen and Jeremy Wolf, as we venture into the intricate world of eye health during Glaucoma Awareness Month. This episode is a must-hear for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of this sight-threatening condition and the critical importance of early detection.

Through our engaging discussion, you'll learn about the nuances of neovascular glaucoma, particularly prevalent among diabetics, and how long-term use of steroid eye drops can have unintended consequences on your vision. We also tackle inflammatory glaucoma, unveiling its connections to autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Graves' disease. This informative session is designed to equip you with knowledge to safeguard your vision and illuminate why those 'eye puff tests' at the optometrist are much more than a mere inconvenience. Join us to become well-versed in the subtleties of secondary glaucoma and proactive about your eye health.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Jazzy Eyes podcast.
Taking care of your vision withexpert precision.
Here's your host, dr Tui Nguyen.

Jeremy (00:14):
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Jazzy Eyes podcast.
Jeremy Wolf, here joined byyour host, dr Tui Nguyen, dr
Nguyen, so good to see you again.
Hope you had a wonderful dayready for a prosperous and
exciting 2024.
So this is national.
I keep saying national.

(00:35):
It's not national, it'sGlockoma Awareness Month.

Dr. Nguyen (00:39):
Yes.

Jeremy (00:40):
And Dr Falco just did a couple of segments to kind of
give her feedback and her, youknow, educational tidbits, if
you will.
We wanted to get your side ofthe story here.
Why don't you talk a little bitabout what you wanted to talk
about in terms of Glockoma, andthen we shall proceed from here.

Dr. Nguyen (01:03):
So Dr Falco talked about primary, open-angle
Glockoma.
I'm going to be talking aboutmore, about secondary Glockoma,
which are like medicalconditions that causes Glockoma,
and so these medical conditionsblock or damages the draining
pathways that fluid normallydrains through in the eyes,

(01:24):
increasing eye pressure and thencausing Glockoma and vision
loss.
When there's fluid in the eyethat's being produced and the
draining pathways are blockedand fluid can't drain out, the
pressures naturally increase.
When the pressure increases weworry about any damages that the
pressure can do to the opticnerve, which is irreversible.

(01:47):
Once the optic nerve isirreversibly damaged, there is
vision loss, specifically visionloss that starts in the
periphery.
And so a few types of thesecondary Glockoma includes
neovascular Glockoma, which is atype of Glockoma that some
diabetics have.
In diabetes there are abnormalblood vessels that grow inside

(02:09):
the eyes.
These blood vessels, they kindof grow like vines, so they
encroach the structure insidethe eyes that drain fluid like
little pores.
It blocks these pores and sonow fluid can't drain through
these pores, leading to build upof fluids, pressure and
eventual Glockomas in thesediabetics.
Very serious.

Jeremy (02:32):
So interesting and fascinating to go over this.
Like I keep saying, it's a lotof information to process.
The hope here is that some ofthe topics that we're talking
about end up in front of peoplethat are experiencing these
specific issues or, at the veryleast, raise awareness to these

(02:52):
types of things and get peopleto make sure that they go for
the routine checkups, because,dr Falco said, all of this stuff
is so much easier to containwhen you can, early on, and if
you wait too long, like you said, there's damage that is
irreversible.

Dr. Nguyen (03:07):
Yeah, and that's why in every exam that we perform,
there's always people like oh,you're not going to do the eye
puff test on me, or like that'sone of the ways that they treat
the diploma, that's one of theways they take pressures.
We don't do the eye pop of theair.
You do the blue light radiationright Not radiation, the blue
light, yeah, and you've had itdone on you recently, so you

(03:28):
know what I'm talking about itwas nice.

Jeremy (03:30):
It was a lot better than the puff.
I don't mind any of that stuff,I don't mind any of that stuff.

Dr. Nguyen (03:38):
I don't mind any of that stuff.
So there are other types ofsecondary glaucoma too.
There are, like other glaucomas, that are induced by steroid
drops.
So some people who are onsteroid eye drops for a long
amount of time, sometimes whenthe steroids, you know they get
into the eye, they penetrate,they do what they're supposed to
do, but the molecules of thesteroids are too large to pass

(03:59):
through the pores of thedraining system as well and
again it blocks the pores.
Fluid can't drain.
Secondary glaucoma A lot ofthese secondary glaucoma is just
things being built up in thedrainage system that blocks the
pores.
That leads to increasedpressure in the eye because
fluid can't drain.
Similarly like there'sinflammatory glaucoma, where

(04:21):
some people with inflammatoryconditions like autoimmune
diseases such as rheumatoidarthritis or Riasis or Graves
disease, whenever they havethese inflammatory eye diseases
and there are inflammatory cells, these cells are also too large
to pass through the pores andso after years of these
inflammatory flares they're at ahigher risk for glaucoma and

(04:44):
developing glaucoma.
Even you know.
There's traumatic glaucomawhere if you've ever gone a ball
straight to the eye, a fiststraight into the eye, there
could be direct damage to thedraining systems of the eye and
leading to traumatic glaucoma.

Jeremy (05:04):
You wanted to talk about another topic related to this.
Let's wrap this up here andthen pick up in another segment
and finalize our discussion onglaucoma.
Sound good?
Yes, all right, thank youeveryone for tuning in and we
will see you shortly.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Thank you for listening to the Jazzy Eyes
podcast.
For more information, visitJazzyEyescom or contact
954-473-0100.