Many elderly have preventable eye problems

12.12.2010 [13:32]
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Baku, December 12 (AZERTAC). A large fraction of elderly people have age-related degenerative changes in their eyes that put them on a path to blindness — but could be preventable — a new study finds.

Eye exams given to more than 5,000 elderly Icelanders found that over one in 10 people in their 60s and nearly one in four in their late 70s have an early form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness.

The risk of later-onset forms of the condition also increased with age, the authors report in the journal Ophthalmology. People 85 and older appeared to be 10 times more likely to have late AMD than people aged 70 to 74.

Recent evidence suggests that there may be a way to prevent the progression of some of these lesions, study author Dr. Fridbert Jonasson of Landspitali University Hospital and the University of Iceland told Reuters Health. There is no cure for AMD, but a U.S. government clinical trial has found that a specific high-dose mix of antioxidants — vitamins C and E, beta-carotene and zinc — can slow the progression of AMD that is in the intermediate stages, and doctors now commonly prescribe it for such patients.

Another study published earlier this year found that older adults who eat fatty fish at least once a week may have a lower risk of serious vision loss from AMD.

"Catching AMD early means that we can start this treatment early, so hopefully reduce the risk of late AMD," Jonasson said.

AMD is caused by abnormal blood vessel growth behind the retina or a breakdown of light-sensitive cells within the retina itself, both of which can cause serious vision impairment.

Despite the frequency of AMD, it has not been clear how often it occurs in the "oldest old," Jonasson said in an e-mail. To investigate, Jonasson and colleagues captured detailed images of the eye interior of 5,272 people aged 66 and older living in the Reykjavik area.

They found that 11 percent of people in their late 60s had an early form of AMD. As they aged, the rate of early AMD increased, to 36 percent of people 85 and older.

Two forms of late AMD (geographic atrophy and exudative AMD) also increased with age, from affecting one percent or less of people ages 75 and younger, to between eight and 11 percent of those 85 and older.

Many elderly have preventable eye problems

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