Author Interviews, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology, PNAS / 27.10.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bradley D. Gelfand PhD Center for Advanced Vision Science Department of Ophthalmology Department of Biomedical Engineering University of Virginia School of Medicine Charlottesville, VA 22908  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly describe dry AMD? Response: Dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a form of AMD that affects about 11 million people in the United States, and many millions more worldwide. Dry AMD is a disease affecting the macula, the central part of our retina that is responsible for fine visual acuity tasks - things like reading, driving, and recognizing faces. Dry AMD typically develops in people in their 6th, 7th, and 8th decades of life and begins with small changes to the retina that are unlikely to affect vision at first. As the disease progresses, it can develop into more advanced stages ("wet" AMD and geographic atrophy), which can cause blindness. Unfortunately, there is no approved treatment that can prevent dry AMD or its progression to advanced blinding stages. (more…)
Author Interviews, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 08.08.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Matthew Campbell, PhD Smurfit Institute of Genetics Trinity College Dublin Dublin MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common form of central retinal blindness in the world. However the underlying causes and initiating factors for disease progression are still not clear. It is classically a disease of the outer retina, where cells called retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells degenerate. However, our findings suggest that some of the early initiating events that promote AMD progression are actually coming from the inner retina and more specifically the microvasculature of the inner retina. We discovered that a gene called claudin-5 appears to be regulated by a circadian rhythm that in turn can regulate what gets into and out of the retina on a daily basis. Dysregulating the levels of this component made the inner retinal blood vessels marginally leaky and promoted a pathology that was AMD-like in animal models.  We also showed that the blood vessels of the retina appear to be highly dynamic in human subjects and can appear leakier at different times of the day, likely a mechanism that allows for clearance and replenishment of material into and out of the retina.  It is this process we believe breaks down in early AMD.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Compliance, JAMA, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 25.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jason Hsu, MD Retina Service, Wills Eye Hospital Associate Professor of Ophthalmology Thomas Jefferson University Mid Atlantic Retina Anthony Obeid MD MPH School of Public Health The University of Sydney · MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is a vision-threatening disease that often afflicts elderly patients. The introduction of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment drastically improved the prognosis of eyes with nAMD. Despite its efficacy, patients require consistent follow-up (sometimes as often as monthly), with ongoing injections to maintain the visual benefits of the drug. Unfortunately, few studies have reported the number of patients that do not follow-up with recommended guidelines. Moreover, there remains limited evidence on the risk factors associated with loss to follow-up. Our study, consisting of 9007 patients with a history of nAMD receiving treatment between 2012 and 2016, evaluated both these parameters. We defined loss to follow-up as having at least one injection without a subsequent follow-up visit within 12 months post-treatment. Using this definition, we found that over 20% of patients are lost to follow-up over the entire study period. We further identified key risk factors associated with loss to follow-up, which included patients of older age, race, patients residing in a region of a lower average adjusted gross income, patients living at greater distances from clinic, patients with active nAMD in only one eye, and patients with worse visual acuity. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lancet, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 18.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof Peter A Campochiaro MD Director, Retinal Cell and Molecular Laboratory Professor of Ophthalmology Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, MD MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have increased levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in their eyes resulting in growth of abnormal blood vessels that leak fluid into the retina and reduce vision. The current treatment is to inject proteins that block VEGF which initially provides a very good effect, but repeated injections are needed. Patients sometimes are unable to keep up the frequency of visits and injections needed to keep the disease quiet and over time there is often gradual loss of vision. The aim of this study was to test a new approach through which a viral vector is injected into the eye resulting in production of a protein that block VEGF in the eye reducing the need for repeated injections. These are the major findings: 1) Intravitreous injection of an AAV2 vector expressing a protein that blocks vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was safe and well-tolerated. (2) 5 of 10 patients injected with the highest dose (2 × 10¹⁰ vector genomes) had measurable levels of the therapeutic protein in samples removed from the front of the eye- all of these patients had no or very low levels of anti-AAV2 serum antibodies and 4 of the 5 patients who did not show expression had high anti-AAV2 serum antibodies (3) Eleven patients had fluid in or under the retina before vector injection and 6 of them showed substantial reduction of the fluid which is the desired outcome. (more…)
Author Interviews, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology, Technology / 17.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Felicity de Cogan PhD Institute of Inflammation and Ageing University of Birmingham MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The University of Birmingham has a unique approach to developing technologies. By locating chemists, engineers, biologists and clinicians in the same department it revolutionised the way research problems are solved. Initially, Felicity de Cogan was researching cell penetrating peptides (CPP) and their uses in microbiology. However, after joining forces with Neuroscientists, Dr Lisa Hill and Professor Ann Logan at the National Institute for Health Research Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (NIHR SRMRC) together with the clinicians and Vision Scientists, Dr Mei Chen and Professor Heping Xu at the Queen’s University Belfast it became evident that there was huge potential to deliver drugs in the eye. This was the start of the project and it developed rapidly from there. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology, Primary Care / 01.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David C Neely, MD The University of Alabama at Birmingham MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study examined the prevalence of eyes with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in patients seen in primary eye care clinics who purportedly have normal macular health. Approximately 25.0% of eyes deemed to be normal based on dilated eye examination by primary eye care providers had macular characteristics that indicated age-related macular degeneration. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, JAMA, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology, Telemedicine / 02.04.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John Wittenborn Senior research scientist NORC's Public Health Analytics University of Chicago MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response:The emergence of anti-VEGF treatment for wet-form AMD (choroidal neovascularization) has had a dramatic impact on preserving vision for many Americans. However, community-based studies show that most patients are not diagnosed with wet-form AMD until they have already lost a significant, and largely unrecoverable amount of their vision.  Early detection of wet-form AMD is key to effective treatment and the preservation of vision. The ForeseeHome telemonitoring technology provides patients with a means to check their own eyes on a daily basis to detect the earliest signs of vision loss from wet-form AMD. This is a novel technology that has the potential to improve visual health outcomes for AMD patients.  A prior clinical trial (the AREDS-2 HOME study) demonstrated that this technology can detect wet-form AMD earlier, and with less vision loss than standard care alone. However, that is exactly where that study ended as it reported no cost information nor follow-up. Since the end of this study, the device has been cleared by the FDA and approved for reimbursement by Medicare for certain higher risk patients, but no study has yet considered the long-term implications of adoption of this technology. In our analysis, we use a computer simulation model to essentially estimate what will come next, after patients realize earlier detection of wet-form AMD by utilizing home monitoring. Basically, we follow simulated patients from the time they begin monitoring for the rest of their lives, recording the likely impacts of home monitoring on patients’ long term outcomes including visual status, costs and quality of life. We find that home telemonitoring among the population indicated for reimbursement by Medicare would cost $35,663 per quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained.  Medicare would expect to incur $1,312 in net budgetary costs over 10 years for each patient who initiates monitoring.  However, Medicare patients may expect to achieve lifetime net savings when accounting for the chance of avoided vision loss and its associated costs later in life. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Genetic Research, JAMA, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 08.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: dr-anneke-i-den-hollanderAnneke I. den Hollander, PhD Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Human Genetics Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, the Netherland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Age-related macular degeneration is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Rare genetic variants in the complement system have been described in AMD, but their effect remains largely unexplored. In this study we aimed to determine the effect of rare genetic variants in the complement system on complement levels and activity in serum. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: Carriers of CFI variants showed decreased FI levels, carriers of C9 Pro167Ser had increased C9 levels, while C3 and FH levels were not altered. Carriers of CFH and CFI variants had a reduced ability to degrade C3b, which for CFI was linked to reduced serum FI levels. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, JAMA, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 09.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Adam Glassman, M.S. Director, DRCRnet Coordinating Center Jaeb Center for Health Research Tampa, FL 33647 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Diabetic macular edema (DME) is the most common cause of vision loss in patients with diabetes, impairing the vision of approximately 750,000 people in the United States. The most common treatment involves the injection into the eye of one of 3 drugs that inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network, funded by the National Institutes of Health, conducted a randomized clinical trial on the comparative effectiveness of the 3 anti-VEGF drugs EYLEA®, Avastin®, or Lucentis® for eyes with decreased vision from diabetic macular edema. There are substantial cost differences between the three drugs. In the United States, EYLEA® costs approximately $1850, repackaged (compounded) Avastin® $60, and Lucentis® $1170 per injection. In eyes with relatively good starting vision, there were no differences in vision outcomes; all three groups, on average, had improved vision. In eyes with starting vision of 20/50 or worse, EYLEA® had better vision outcomes at 1 year than either Avastin® or Lucentis®, and better vision outcomes at 2 years than Avastin®. However, given that, on average, eyes will receive 9 to 10 injections within the first year of treatment and 5 injections in the second year, neither EYLEA® nor Lucentis® would be considered cost effective by standard benchmarks compared with Avastin® unless their prices decrease substantially. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Macular Degeneration / 15.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Demetrios Vavvas, M.D., Ph.D. Co-Director Ocular Regenerative Medical Institute Clinician scientist at Mass. Eye and Ear and Co-Director of the Ocular Regenerative Medicine Institute at Harvard Medical School Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Vavvas: There is a lack of effective therapies for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one of the leading causes of blindness affecting millions. Although AMD shares similarities with atherosclerosis, prior studies on statins and AMD have failed to show improvement. A limitation of these studies has been the heterogeneity of  age-related macular degeneration disease and the lack of standardization in statin dosage. We were interested in studying the effects of high-dose statins, similar to those showing regression of atherosclerotic plaques, in age-related macular degeneration. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Vavvas: Here, we present for the first time evidence that treatment with high-dose atorvastatin (80mg) is associated with regression of lipid deposits and improvement in visual acuity, without atrophy or neovascularization, in high-risk age-related macular degeneration patients. Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report? Dr. Vavvas:
  • High dose lipophilic statin administration was associated with regression of large soft drusen and vision gain in 10/23 age-related macular degeneration patients.
  • Duration of treatment before a positive response was observed was usually 1-1.5 years.
  • Patients on high-dose statin appeared to be protected from progression to “wet” neovascular-AMD.
Cholesterol reduction was similarly drastic in responders and non-responders, which suggests that genetic variation may be important in determine who will benefit and who may not. Age-related macular degeneration is a heterogeneous disease and that targeting the lipid pathway in the appropriate manner and to the appropriate populations we may have the potential not only to slow down or arrest the disease but all to reverse it. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 26.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Karina Birgitta Berg MD Department of Ophthalmology Oslo University Hospital Oslo, Norway  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Berg: Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) has been the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly population of Western countries. Inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) with medications such as bevacizumab and ranibizumab injected into the eye, has dramatically reduced the incidence of social blindness from this disease. Bevacizumab was marketed for intravenous cancer treatment, while ranibizumab was later developed and approved for intraocular treatment of nAMD. Due to similar clinical effects and a strikingly low cost compared to ranibizumab, bevacizumab has remained widely used as an off-label treatment for the treatment of nAMD. In order to preserve vision results over time, most patients need injections repeatedly. Treatment on a monthly basis has shown good vision improvement, while monitoring monthly and treating only when signs of recurrences appear, is less successful. The aim of a treat-and-extend protocol is to gradually increase the treatment intervals, while avoiding potentially harmful recurrences. This treatment modality has become commonly used, entailing fewer patient visits and less burden upon health care systems. The multicenter prospective randomized Lucentis Compared to Avastin Study (LUCAS) was aimed at comparing the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab versus ranibizumab when following a treat-and-extend protocol. The patients received monthly injection treatment until inactive disease was achieved. The treatment interval was then increased by two weeks at a time up to a maximum of 12 weeks. In the event of a recurrence, the treatment interval was reduced by two weeks at a time. The study demonstrated equivalent results in vision improvement with bevacizumab and ranibizumab after two years of treatment. Treatment according to a treat-and-extend protocol was safe with good visual results when extending up to 10 weeks, while recurrences at 12-week intervals had a negative impact on the final results on vision. (more…)
Author Interviews, Macular Degeneration, Parkinson's / 10.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian S. McKay, Ph.D Associate Professor Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science University of Arizona Medical Research Building, Room 212 Tucson, AZ 85724  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. McKay: AMD (age-related macular degeneration) is a disease that is race-related. White people get the disease and lose vision to AMD at much higher rate than Blacks or Hispanics. Thus, while race is complex, pigmentation may protect from the disease. With this starting point, my laboratory went after the pigmentation pathway to determine how pigment may affect photoreceptor (the retinal cells that actually catch the light) survival. The  pigmented cells in the back of the eye are the retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE), the rest of the retina does not pigment, it is clear not brown. We discovered that when the RPE make pigment they turn on molecular pathways to foster photoreceptor survival. Next we discovered the ligand for a receptor on the RPE that was tied to governing photoreceptor survival and pigmentation. That ligand was L-DOPA. Knowing that L-DOPA is given to many aging individuals (those at risk of AMD), we developed a team to ask whether those taking L-DOPA for movement disorders are protected from AMD. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Lancet, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 12.10.2015

Professor P. Elizabeth Rakoczy Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences The University of Western Australia Head of Department - Molecular Ophthalmology Lions Eye Institute AustraliaMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor  P. Elizabeth Rakoczy Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences The University of Western Australia Head of Department - Molecular Ophthalmology Lions Eye Institute Australia Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Prof. Rakoczy: Wet age related macular (wet-AMD) is the major cause of blindness in the developed world. It is treated with frequent anti-VEGF injections into the eye. Our preclinical studies demonstrated that following the subretinal injection of a recombinant adeno-associated vector (rAAV) carrying a natural inhibitor of neovascularization (sFlt-1), leaky new, abnormal vessels can be controlled and retinal anatomy improved. The rAAV.sFlt-1 based Ocular Biofactory™ platform has potentially significant advantages over existing technologies as it is designed to provide sustained production of a naturally occurring antiangiogenic agent, sFlt-1, in situ in the eye. In this trial we investigated the safety of rAAV.sFlt-1 in patients diagnosed with wet-AMD. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Johns Hopkins, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology, PNAS / 29.05.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Akrit Sodhi, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology Retina Division Wilmer Eye Institute Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Sodhi: Diabetic eye disease is the most common cause of severe vision loss in the working age population in the developed world, and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) is its most vision-threatening sequela. In proliferative diabetic retinopathy, retinal ischemia leads to the upregulation of angiogenic factors that promote neovascularization. Therapies targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) delay the development of neovascularization, in some, but not all diabetic patients, implicating additional factor(s) in proliferative diabetic retinopathy pathogenesis. In our study, we demonstrate that the angiogenic potential of aqueous fluid from PDR patients is independent of VEGF concentration, providing an opportunity to evaluate the contribution of other angiogenic factor(s) to PDR development. We identified angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) as a potent angiogenic factor whose expression is upregulated in hypoxic retinal Müller cells in vitro and the ischemic retina in vivo. Expression of ANGPTL4 was increased in the aqueous and vitreous of PDR patients, independent of VEGF levels, correlated with the presence of diabetic eye disease, and localized to areas of retinal neovascularization. Inhibition of ANGPTL4 expression reduced the angiogenic potential of hypoxic Müller cells; this effect was additive with inhibition of VEGF expression. An ANGPTL4 neutralizing antibody inhibited the angiogenic effect of aqueous fluid from proliferative diabetic retinopathy patients, including samples from patients with low VEGF levels or receiving anti-VEGF therapy. Collectively, our results suggest that targeting both ANGPTL4 and VEGF may be necessary for effective treatment or prevention of proliferative diabetic retinopathy and provide the foundation for studies evaluating aqueous ANGPTL4 as a biomarker to help guide individualized therapy for diabetic eye disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Macular Degeneration, Radiology, Stanford / 10.11.2014

Daniel L. Rubin, MD, MS Assistant Professor of Radiology and Medicine (Biomedical Informatics) Department of Radiology | Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-5488MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Daniel L. Rubin, MD, MS  Assistant Professor of Radiology and Medicine (Biomedical Informatics) Department of Radiology | Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-5488 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Rubin: Age-Related Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of blindness and central vision loss among adults older than 65. An estimated 10-15 million people in the United States suffer from the disease, in which the macula — the area of the retina responsible for vision — shows signs of degeneration. While about one of every five people with AMD develop the so-called “wet” form of the disease that can cause devastating blindness. In wet AMD, abnormal blood vessels accumulate underneath the macula and leak blood and fluid. When that happens, irreversible damage to the macula can quickly ensue if not treated quickly. Until now, there has been no effective way to tell which individuals with AMD are likely to convert to the wet stage. Current treatments are costly and invasive — they typically involve injections of medicines directly into the eyeball — making the notion of treating people with early or intermediate stages of Age-Related Macular Degeneration a non-starter. In our study, we report on a computerized method that analyzes images of the retina obtained with a test called spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), and our method can predict, with high accuracy, whether a patient with mild or intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration will progress to the wet stage. Our method generates a risk score, a value that predicts a patient’s likelihood of progressing to the wet stage within one year, three years or five years. The likelihood of progression within one year is most relevant, because it can be used to guide a recommendation as to how soon to schedule the patient’s next office visit. In our study, we analyzed data from 2,146 scans of 330 eyes in 244 patients seen at Stanford Health Care over a five-year period. Patients were followed for as long as four years, and predictions of the model were compared with actual instances of conversion to wet AMD. The model accurately predicted every occurrence of conversion to the wet stage of AMD within a year. In approximately 40% of the cases when the model predicted conversion to wet AMD within a year, the prediction was not borne out, however. We are currently refining the model to reduce the frequency of these false positives. (more…)
Author Interviews, General Medicine, Macular Degeneration, Stroke / 31.10.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Takashi Ueta, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology Graduate School and Faculty of Medicine The University of Tokyo Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Ueta: In 2009 we had reported an initial systematic review and meta-analysis which include pivotal RCTs but the number of the included studies were only 3 (MARINA, ANCHOR, FOCUS). During the following several years, more trials comparing different dosages and frequencies of ranibizumab treatment were conducted, which made us to update our meta-analysis. Based on our updated meta-analysis, increase in several systemic vascular adverse events was observed: 86% increase in odds ratio (OR) for the risk of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) when 0,5 mg ranibizumab used. 89% increase in OR for the risk of CVA when monthly ranibizumab of any dosage is used. 57% increase in OR for the risk of non-ocular hemorrhage when ranibizumab of any dosage with any frequency is used. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Macular Degeneration / 28.10.2014

Ronald Klein, MD, MPH, Professor Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Madison WIMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ronald Klein, MD, MPH, Professor Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Madison WI Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?  Dr. Klein: We found that more severe age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 1 eye was associated with increased incidence of age-related macular degeneration [levels 1-2: hazard ratio [HR], 4.90 [95%CI, 4.26-5.63] and accelerated progression [levels 2-3: HR, 2.09 [95%CI, 1.42-3.06]; levels 3-4: HR, 2.38 [95%CI, 1.74-3.25] and incidence of late age-related macular degeneration [levels 4-5: HR, 2.46 [95%CI, 1.65-3.66] in its fellow eye. Less severe AMD in 1 eye was associated with less progression of AMD in its fellow eye. We estimated that 51% of participants who develop any age-related macular degeneration maintained age-related macular degeneration severity states within 1 step of each other between eyes and 90% of participants stay within 2 steps. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, JAMA, Macular Degeneration, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 19.08.2014

Rohit Varma, MD, MPH Grace and Emery Beardsley Professor and Chair USC Department of Ophthalmology Director, USC Eye Institute Associate Dean for Strategic Planning and Network Development Keck School of Medicine of USCMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rohit Varma, MD, MPH Grace and Emery Beardsley Professor and Chair USC Department of Ophthalmology Director, USC Eye Institute Associate Dean for Strategic Planning and Network Development Keck School of Medicine of USC Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Varma: Our research demonstrates African-Americans bear a heavier burden of diabetic macular edema (DME), one of the leading causes of blindness in diabetic patients in the United States, compared to Non-Hispanic whites. The study points to a need for improved screening and greater attention to vision loss by clinicians and patients particularly those who are at high risk of developing diabetic macular edema. (more…)
Author Interviews, General Medicine, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 19.03.2014

Chung-Jung Chiu DDS PhD Scientist II, JM USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging Assistant Professor, School of Medicine Tufts University Boston MA 02111MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Chung-Jung Chiu DDS PhD Scientist II, JM USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging Assistant Professor, School of Medicine Tufts University Boston MA 02111 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: In this study, we found that advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is predictable by using clinically readily available information. We devised a simple algorithm to summarize the clinical predictors and showed the validity of our prediction model in both clinic-based and community-based cohorts. We also develop an application (App) for the iPhone and iPad as a practical tool for our prediction model. (more…)
Antioxidants, Author Interviews, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 20.01.2014

Jie Jin Wang MMed (Clin Epi) MAppStat PhD Professor Australian NHMRC Senior Research Fellow (Level B) Centre for Vision Research Westmead Millennium Institute University of Sydney C24 Westmead Hospital, NSW 2145 AustraliaMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jie Jin Wang MMed (Clin Epi) MAppStat PhD Professor Australian NHMRC Senior Research Fellow (Level B) Centre for Vision Research Westmead Millennium Institute University of Sydney C24 Westmead Hospital, NSW 2145 Australia MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We documented a consistent association between high dietary intake of lutein/zeaxanthin (LZ) and a reduced long-term risk of early age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in persons who carry ≥2 risk alleles of either or both the complement factor H (CFH-rs1061170) and/or the age-related maculopathy susceptibility gene 2 (ARMS2-rs10490924) in two older population-based cohorts. (more…)
JAMA, Macular Degeneration, Ophthalmology / 10.05.2013

MedicalResearch.com eInterview with: Emily Y. Chew, MD Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications National Eye Institute (NEI)/National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
 Dr. Chew: For patients who have intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or those with advanced AMD in one eye, we have recommended a mixture of vitamins and minerals (vitamin C, E and beta-carotene, and zinc oxide and cupric oxide), known as Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) formulation.  We tested the effects of adding carotenoids, lutein/zeaxanthin, or omega-3 fatty acids or both to the AREDS formulation.  Omega-3 fatty acids did not have any effect on AMD.  Addition of lutein/zeaxanthin provided an additional 10% increase in the reduction of progression to advanced AMD.  In persons with the lowest dietary intake of lutein/zeaxanthin, supplementation with lutein/zeaxanthin provided 25% reduction in rates of developing advanced AMD When we tested lutein/zeaxanthin directly against beta-carotene, the risk of progressing to advanced AMD was reduced by 20%. Furthermore, beta-carotene was found to increase the risk of lung cancer.  To improve the safety and efficacy of the AREDS formulation, we would suggest the elimination of beta-carotene and adding lutein/zeaxanthin.  Omega-3 fatty acids added no further benefit. (more…)