EN
Glaucoma belongs to the heterogeneous group of diseases that lead to disorders in the field of vision, which are caused by elevated intraocular pressure. The common feature of these diseases is optic neuropathy, i.e. impairment of the eyesight, which results in the decreased vision. Untreated glaucoma is the second most common cause of blindness, after cataract. Unfortunately, usually in the initial phase, it does not exhibit any clear symptoms that would indicate this disease. The most common type is Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma (POAG), incidence of this type of glaucoma amounts to more than 50% of glaucoma cases in developed countries. The etiology is not fully understood yet. Probably both, the genetics and environmental factors, (among other heavy metals) impact the occurrence of glaucoma. Determination of the cause would help to improve the diagnostics of glaucoma and it would also provide basis, among others to biotechnologists and biologists, for searching for new medications. This studies are difficult and they require a lot of dedication and commitment, but interest in the etiology of these changes is still growing. This publication attempts to provide insight into the most important issues and possible causes of incidence, e.g. what is the impact of environmental pollution (concentration of selected heavy metals) and mutations of selected genes. We want to see are these polymorphisms occur in our country. If we will observe this changes what, we want to check how often they occur and how they correlate with the concentrations of metal ions in the blood. Our research focus on the detection of new glaucoma markers and better understanding of the etiology this disease