Low-pressure glaucoma is when the patient suffers damage to the optic nerve and loss of peripheral vision, in an eye with normal intraocular pressure. Thyroid disease is a common co-morbid condition in low-pressure glaucoma; and high thyroid is known to cause swelling behind the eye, compression of the optic nerve, and loss of visual field, which appears identical to the damage and visual field loss in glaucoma.
Many articles were published over the course of a decade, describing thyroid eye disease at the cellular level. The research reported thyroid inflammatory markers and cytokines, including anti-thyroid antibodies, matched the lock and key mechanism in the eye; and when inflammatory markers and cytokines invade the eye it causes thyroid eye disease and thyroid orbitopathy. However, cellular explanations involving CD40, CD154, and cytokines do not fully explain the root cause of thyroid eye disease or thyroid orbitopathy.
H-pylori is “associated” with CD40, CD154, and cytokines, the same inflammatory markers reported to be attacking the eye in thyroid eye disease. H-pylori can attack the thyroid, and thyroid antibodies attacking the eye may be antibodies to H-pylori, which can attack both the thyroid and the eye. Infectious causes of low-pressure glaucoma and thyroid eye disease should be investigated.
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