Medical Dialogues
  • Dermatology
Login Register
This site is intended for healthcare professionals only
Login Register
  • MD Brand Connect
  • Vaccine Hub
  • MDTV
    • Breaking News
    • Medical News Today
    • Health News Today
    • Latest
    • Journal Club
    • Medico Legal Update
    • Latest Webinars
    • MD Shorts
    • Health Dialogues
  • Fact Check
  • Health Dialogues
Medical Dialogues
  • Medical News & Guidelines
      • Anesthesiology
      • Cardiology and CTVS
      • Critical Care
      • Dentistry
      • Dermatology
      • Diabetes and Endocrinology
      • ENT
      • Gastroenterology
      • Medicine
      • Nephrology
      • Neurology
      • Obstretics-Gynaecology
      • Oncology
      • Ophthalmology
      • Orthopaedics
      • Pediatrics-Neonatology
      • Psychiatry
      • Pulmonology
      • Radiology
      • Surgery
      • Urology
      • Laboratory Medicine
      • Diet
      • Nursing
      • Paramedical
      • Physiotherapy
  • Health news
      • Doctor News
      • Government Policies
      • Hospital & Diagnostics
      • International Health News
      • Medical Organization News
      • Medico Legal News
      • NBE News
      • NMC News
  • Fact Check
      • Bone Health Fact Check
      • Brain Health Fact Check
      • Cancer Related Fact Check
      • Child Care Fact Check
      • Dental and oral health fact check
      • Diabetes and metabolic health fact check
      • Diet and Nutrition Fact Check
      • Eye and ENT Care Fact Check
      • Fitness fact check
      • Gut health fact check
      • Heart health fact check
      • Kidney health fact check
      • Medical education fact check
      • Men's health fact check
      • Respiratory fact check
      • Skin and hair care fact check
      • Vaccine and Immunization fact check
      • Women's health fact check
  • AYUSH
    • Ayurveda
    • Homeopathy
    • Siddha
    • Unani
    • Yoga
  • State News
      • Andaman and Nicobar Islands
      • Andhra Pradesh
      • Arunachal Pradesh
      • Assam
      • Bihar
      • Chandigarh
      • Chattisgarh
      • Dadra and Nagar Haveli
      • Daman and Diu
      • Delhi
      • Goa
      • Gujarat
      • Haryana
      • Himachal Pradesh
      • Jammu & Kashmir
      • Jharkhand
      • Karnataka
      • Kerala
      • Ladakh
      • Lakshadweep
      • Madhya Pradesh
      • Maharashtra
      • Manipur
      • Meghalaya
      • Mizoram
      • Nagaland
      • Odisha
      • Puducherry
      • Punjab
      • Rajasthan
      • Sikkim
      • Tamil Nadu
      • Telangana
      • Tripura
      • Uttar Pradesh
      • Uttrakhand
      • West Bengal
  • Medical Education
      • Ayush Education News
      • Dentistry Education News
      • Medical Admission News
      • Medical Colleges News
      • Medical Courses News
      • Medical Universities News
      • Nursing education News
      • Paramedical Education News
      • Study Abroad
  • Industry
      • Health Investment News
      • Health Startup News
      • Medical Devices News
      • Pharma News
      • Pharmacy Education News
      • Industry Perspective
  • MDTV
      • Health Dialogues MDTV
      • Health News today MDTV
      • Latest Videos MDTV
      • Latest Webinars MDTV
      • MD shorts MDTV
      • Medical News Today MDTV
      • Medico Legal Update MDTV
      • Top Videos MDTV
      • Health Perspectives MDTV
      • Journal Club MDTV
      • Medical Dialogues Show
This site is intended for healthcare professionals only
LoginRegister
Medical Dialogues
LoginRegister
  • Home
  • Medical news & Guidelines
    • Anesthesiology
    • Cardiology and CTVS
    • Critical Care
    • Dentistry
    • Dermatology
    • Diabetes and Endocrinology
    • ENT
    • Gastroenterology
    • Medicine
    • Nephrology
    • Neurology
    • Obstretics-Gynaecology
    • Oncology
    • Ophthalmology
    • Orthopaedics
    • Pediatrics-Neonatology
    • Psychiatry
    • Pulmonology
    • Radiology
    • Surgery
    • Urology
    • Laboratory Medicine
    • Diet
    • Nursing
    • Paramedical
    • Physiotherapy
  • Health news
    • Doctor News
    • Government Policies
    • Hospital & Diagnostics
    • International Health News
    • Medical Organization News
    • Medico Legal News
    • NBE News
    • NMC News
  • Fact Check
    • Bone Health Fact Check
    • Brain Health Fact Check
    • Cancer Related Fact Check
    • Child Care Fact Check
    • Dental and oral health fact check
    • Diabetes and metabolic health fact check
    • Diet and Nutrition Fact Check
    • Eye and ENT Care Fact Check
    • Fitness fact check
    • Gut health fact check
    • Heart health fact check
    • Kidney health fact check
    • Medical education fact check
    • Men's health fact check
    • Respiratory fact check
    • Skin and hair care fact check
    • Vaccine and Immunization fact check
    • Women's health fact check
  • AYUSH
    • Ayurveda
      • Ayurveda Giuidelines
      • Ayurveda News
    • Homeopathy
      • Homeopathy Guidelines
      • Homeopathy News
    • Siddha
      • Siddha Guidelines
      • Siddha News
    • Unani
      • Unani Guidelines
      • Unani News
    • Yoga
      • Yoga Guidelines
      • Yoga News
  • State News
    • Andaman and Nicobar Islands
    • Andhra Pradesh
    • Arunachal Pradesh
    • Assam
    • Bihar
    • Chandigarh
    • Chattisgarh
    • Dadra and Nagar Haveli
    • Daman and Diu
    • Delhi
    • Goa
    • Gujarat
    • Haryana
    • Himachal Pradesh
    • Jammu & Kashmir
    • Jharkhand
    • Karnataka
    • Kerala
    • Ladakh
    • Lakshadweep
    • Madhya Pradesh
    • Maharashtra
    • Manipur
    • Meghalaya
    • Mizoram
    • Nagaland
    • Odisha
    • Puducherry
    • Punjab
    • Rajasthan
    • Sikkim
    • Tamil Nadu
    • Telangana
    • Tripura
    • Uttar Pradesh
    • Uttrakhand
    • West Bengal
  • Medical Education
    • Ayush Education News
    • Dentistry Education News
    • Medical Admission News
    • Medical Colleges News
    • Medical Courses News
    • Medical Universities News
    • Nursing education News
    • Paramedical Education News
    • Study Abroad
  • Industry
    • Health Investment News
    • Health Startup News
    • Medical Devices News
    • Pharma News
      • CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation) News
    • Pharmacy Education News
    • Industry Perspective
  • Home
  • Ophthalmology
  • Ophthalmology News
  • Two separate eye...

Two separate eye diseases may contribute to early age-related macular degeneration

Written By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2023-01-26T20:00:03+05:30  |  Updated On 26 Jan 2023 8:00 PM IST
Two separate eye diseases may contribute to early age-related macular degeneration
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • Telegram
  • Email

Two separate eye diseases may contribute to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the United States, according to a new study from New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.

The research, published January 9 in Eye is the first to demonstrate that two different types of deposits in the retina may contribute to early AMD, which can progress to advanced AMD and blindness. These two diseases could be diagnosed, studied, and treated separately with appropriate early intervention to prevent vision loss and other complications.

Age-related macular degeneration results from damage to the central area of the retina called the macula, which is responsible for reading and driving vision for driving Nearly 20 million Americans age 40 and older are living with some form of AMD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. AMD in its early form is currently considered to be a single disease with cholesterol-containing deposits. These deposits are known as drusen and subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDDs). Early AMD may progress to blindness in two advanced forms, commonly called wet and dry AMD. The advanced dry form is also called geographic atrophy (GA) by eye specialists.

“An amazing fact is that the retina can generate a fluorescent light, similar to that of a light fixture, but a million times dimmer. For the first time, we were able to measure this dim light, called autofluorescence (AF), with ultra-sensitive detectors to study advanced AMD. We found it was consistently twice as bright in the patients with SDDs as those with drusen when they reached advanced AMD, and came from a unique diseased layer,” explains lead author R. Theodore Smith, MD, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Combined with our prior research, this provides conclusive evidence that two different disease processes in AMD are taking place, one with darker fluorescence and drusen, and one with brighter fluorescence and SDDs, and they need to be treated differently.”

Drusen formation can be slowed by appropriate vitamin supplements to prevent vision loss. Currently, there is no known treatment for SDDs, and they pose a greater threat of advanced AMD. However, in a recent previous study, Dr. Smith and a team of Mount Sinai researchers found that patients with SDDs are likely to have heart damage from heart failure and heart attacks, or advanced heart valve disease, or strokes associated with carotid artery disease.

“We think the SDDs result from deficient blood flow to the eye caused by these vascular diseases. We therefore believe that patients with SDDs should be warned they may have life-threatening undetected heart conditions that should be evaluated and treated. Further research needs to be done in women and disadvantaged groups where neglected heart disease is a serious issue. Eye scans for SDDs and routine cholesterol blood tests could address this. Additionally, treating the cardiovascular condition and restoring the eye’s blood supply may also help the SDDs. This work should prompt retinal specialists to look for both drusen and SDDs with optical coherence tomography (OCT), a standard retinal imaging technique, to best counsel patients.

The new research measured the autofluorescence and evaluated OCT scans in 18 patients (32 eyes) with advanced AMD and geographic atrophy (GA). Because GA can happen in multiple regions of the retina, investigators analyzed 52 GA regions overall. They also selected only patients who had OCT scans over the three previous years so they could determine whether the diseased regions started with drusen, SDDs, or both. 18 of these regions originated from drusen, 12 originated from SDDs, and 22 originated from mixtures of drusen and SDDs. The team then measured the brightness of the fluorescent light coming from these regions with a very sensitive light meter. They found it was twice as bright in patients with SDDs when compared to those with drusen. Specifically, the brightness readings averaged 72 in SDD subjects and 36 in drusen subjects, with values in the mixed group falling in between.

“All these numbers translate into one basic fact-there are two different diseases in AMD, one with drusen and one with SDDs,” says Dr. Smith. “The good news for patients and eye specialists is that in the clinic, we will not need advanced AF measurements to know which form of AMD the patient has. As our research showed, the two forms are associated with drusen and SDDs, and those deposits can be identified by standard retinal imaging. It therefore becomes important to diagnose which form of AMD the patient has for treatment and prevention of disease.”

Reference:

Wei, W., Mazzola, M., Otero-Marquez, O. et al. Two potentially distinct pathways to geographic atrophy in age-related macular degeneration characterized by quantitative fundus autofluorescence. Eye (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-022-02332-8

Eyeeye diseasesage-related macular degenerationAMDblindnessretinavision lossmaculaheart failurecarotid artery diseaseSDDs
Source : Eye
Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli
Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

Show Full Article
Next Story

Editorial

Aspirin Use in Male Smokers Aged 40-45 Years with Hypertension: Identifying the Ideal Candidates

Aspirin Use in Male Smokers Aged 40-45 Years with Hypertension: Identifying the Ideal Candidates

National Consensus 2025 on Role of Bisoprolol Across CV Continuum in Women: Top 10 Takeaways

National Consensus 2025 on Role of Bisoprolol Across CV Continuum in Women: Top 10 Takeaways

Relevance of Pioglitazone in Indian T2DM Care Continuum

Relevance of Pioglitazone in Indian T2DM Care Continuum

Azmarda Outperforms Generic Sacubitril/Valsartan in HFrEF Management, says new study

Azmarda Outperforms Generic Sacubitril/Valsartan in HFrEF Management, says new study

First Indian Consensus on Managing Refractory Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Recommends Vonoprazan

First Indian Consensus on Managing Refractory Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Recommends Vonoprazan

View All

Journal Club Today

Global Omega-3 Shortage Poses Serious Health and Environmental Risks: Study

Global Omega-3 Shortage Poses Serious Health and Environmental Risks: Study

View All

Health News Today

Health Bulletin 31/May/2025

Health Bulletin 31/May/2025

View All
© 2022 All Rights Reserved.
Powered By: Hocalwire
X
We use cookies for analytics, advertising and to improve our site. You agree to our use of cookies by continuing to use our site. To know more, see our Cookie Policy and Cookie Settings.Ok