Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Age-related macular degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness. There is only one form of macular disease, which affects the eye retina.

An estimated 500,000 people in the UK suffer from AMD, 40 percent are in the age of 75.What is AMD?


AMD is the most common form of macular disease, which affects the central part of the retina.

It is an age-related process and usually develops after a person of 50 years.

It includes usually both eyes, although they may be affected, not at the same time or to the same extent of it.

Approximately 90% of these cases are dry AMD, are not covered, but 10% are wet ADM..

Dry AMD means that Visual cells simply stop functioning.

Wet AMD is by far the most aggressive form of the disease.

The condition is caused by the growth of new blood vessels beneath the center of the retina.

They might leak fluid, causing scar tissue to destroy form and the central vision, in a period of time between two months and three years.

See peripheral is maintained. The condition causes problems reading, to see small objects and distorted vision.

What are the symptoms?

In the early stages of AMD, central vision may be blurry or distorted. Objects can assume an unusual size or shape.

This process can happen quickly or develop over several months.

People with the disease can be very sensitive to light or lights that are not really see it be.

There may be some discomfort, even though overall the condition is not painful.

How is AMD treated?

There is no treatment for dry AMD, but there are a number of treatments for wet form of the disease.

Photodynamic therapy involves the injection of photosensitive medication called AMD into a vein in the arm.

The medicine is able to identify the abnormal blood vessels in the macula, and add itself to proteins in these ships.

The medicine will be activated - shone through a laser, which destroy the rogue vessels in the eye - is.

This keeps the vessels from blood or fluid, therefore to stop the damage caused by the ships of the macula.

The technique was developed to ensure that none of the healthy, but delicate tissues in the eye are damaged.

It can be used only on a subset of patients.

A newer drug treatment for wet AMD is known as anti-VGEF (vascular endothelial growth factor) medication.

It works by blocking one of the most important chemicals for the growth of new blood vessels responsible.

The anti-VGEF medication has in your eye with a very fine needle to be injected.

The National Institute for health and clinical excellence (NICE) approved Lucentis, an anti-VGEF Medciation, for use in England and Wales in 2008.


View the original article here

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