**Author details**

Ghanshyam Swarup\* , Vipul Vaibhava and Ananthamurthy Nagabhushana

\*Address all correspondence to: gshyam@ccmb.res.in

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hyderabad, India

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**Chapter 7**

**The Role of Apolipoprotein E Gene Polymorphisms in**

**Primary Glaucoma and Pseudoexfoliation Syndrome**

Primary glaucoma (PG) is one of the most common eye diseases which may potentially result in bilateral blindness. Glaucoma affects 70 million people and is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. It is estimated that by the year 2020, this number would rise to around 79.6 million [1]. The prevalence of glaucoma varies widely across the different ethnic groups [2-8] and is significantly higher in blacks (4.7%) as compared to the white (1.3%) population [9]. The prevalence of both primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) is higher in western region of Saudi Arabia as compared to other Asian countries [10]. To date no national study has been undertaken to determine the exact preva‐ lence of glaucoma in Saudi Arabia, though it is one of the major causes of blindness in this

The glaucomas are a group of relatively common optic neuropathies in which pathological loss of retinal ganglion cells cause progressive loss of sight and associated alteration in the retinal nerve fiber layer and optic nerve head. Recent studies clearly suggest that abnormalities in structure and function of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) are proportional to the loss of retinal ganglion cells in glaucoma [11]. Studies on two independent patients' populations also confirmed a close association between RNFL thickness and several visual parameters [12]. The retina is a light capturing tissue consisting of more than fifty different types of cells each performing unique function that ultimately provide the visual centers in the brain the information to achieve image formation and visual perception. Photo production require the

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2013 Al- Dabbagh et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

Najwa Mohammed Al- Dabbagh,

Abdulrahman Al-Asmari

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/54614

**1. Introduction**

country.

Sulaiman Al-Saleh, Nourah Al-Dohayan, Misbahul Arfin, Mohammad Tariq and

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter
