Age-related macular degeneration and blindness due to neovascular maculopathy.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the four most common causes of blindness in the United States. Retinal manifestations of AMD can be categorized as either atrophic or neovascular/exudative. To the best of our knowledge, the proportion of patients legally blind due to the neovascular/exudative manifestations of this disease has not been previously reported. Data from two studies, the Framingham Eye Study and a large case-control study, demonstrate that the vast majority of patients with legal blindness due to AMD have the neovascular/exudative form of the disease. Seventy-nine percent of eyes legally blind due to AMD in the Framingham population and 90% of eyes legally blind due to AMD in the case-control study had neovascular/exudative retinopathy. This is in spite of the fact that neovascular/exudative retinopathy is a relatively infrequent complication of AMD.
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053685:Laser Therapy; D008266:Macula Lutea / Q000098:blood supply*; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000503:physiopathology*