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Results of crystallographic analysis of the lacrimal fluid in patients with glaucoma combined with cataract are analyzed. The characteristic features of lacrimal crystallograms of such patients consist in changed ratio of the crystallization zones with disappearance of the intermediate zone and appearance of stellate structures on crystallograms of patients with progressing cataracts. The method of lacrimal crystallography is suggested to be used in examinations of patients with glaucoma.

The development of glaucoma involves changes in the chamber humor caused by hydrodynamic disorders. Primary glaucoma is often combined with lens opacities. Comparison of the content of protein and protein fractions in aqueous humor and blood serum of patients with glaucoma and different degree of lens opacity showed that, in contrast to senile cataract, cataract in a glaucomatous eye forms when the permeability of the blood-eye barrier is increased, which justifies the administration of drugs stabilizing it.

Studies of the in vitro inhibitory effects of drugs most often used in the treatment of primary glaucoma on the generation of the main active oxygen forms (hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion radical, singlet oxygen and radical products of hydrogen peroxide and peroxidase reaction) showed that antiradical activity is more intrinsic for thimolol and decreases in the following series: betoptic-pilocarpinclofelin. This once more validates the efficacy of beta-blockers in the treatment of glaucoma and prevention of cataract associated with it.

One- and two-dimensional examination of the lens supplemented with biometry was carried out in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. Echobiometry revealed a relationship between the thickness of the lens and type of cataract. Analysis of echographic images of the lens and biomicroscopy findings demonstrated the value of this method for the early objective assessment of cataract progress in patients with glaucoma, specifically, after antiglaucoma surgery.

The content of lipid peroxidation products (malonic dialdehyde) in the aqueous humor is increased in patients with mature cataracts developing after antiglaucoma surgery. Antioxidative activity of the humor was decreased. A relationship was revealed between the postoperative changes in ocular hydrodynamics and metabolic disorders in the chamber humor (reduction of the antioxidative activity of the humor and its suppressed production), which explains one mechanism of cataract development in patients operated on for glaucoma.

AntiDNA antibodies in the serum and lacrimal fluid are reliably more often detected by enzyme immunoassay in glaucoma patients with signs of lens opacity than in those with transparent lens. The presence of antibodies to denaturated DNA in the serum and/or lacrimal fluid may serve as the prognostic criterion of a high risk of cataract development and progress after antiglaucoma surgery. The informative periods for immunological examinations if the period before the operation and 3 months after it.

The level of lipid peroxidation products (malonic dialdehyde) is more than two times increased in the anterior chamber humor in patients with far advanced glaucoma in comparison with the well-developed stage. The level of the total antioxidant activity of humor is reliably lowered. A correlation has been revealed between the antioxidant activity of humor and its production. These results prompt us to recommend antioxidants for therapy of primary glaucoma.