Complement factor H and the bilaterality of age-related macular degeneration.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether complement factor H (CFH Y402H) genotype influences bilateral involvement of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) lesions.


METHODS
The Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES) followed up 3654 participants 49 years and older (BMES 1, 1992-1994), including 2335 (75.3% of survivors) at the 5-year (BMES 2, 1997-1999) and 1952 (76.5%) at the 10-year (BMES 3, 2002-2004) examinations. Age-related macular degeneration retinal photographic grading used the Wisconsin system. Early and late AMD included prevalent and incident cases from all visits. CFH genotyping used TaqMan assays.


RESULTS
Of 767 AMD cases, 53.3% of early and 53.1% of late AMD cases were bilateral. After adjusting for age and other covariants, the CFH CC (Y402H polymorphism) genotype was associated with an increased likelihood of bilateral compared with unilateral involvement by any soft drusen (odds ratio [OR], 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-4.5), distinct soft drusen (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.0-8.1), and pigmentary abnormalities (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.0-2.8). We could not establish significant associations between this genotype and the bilaterality of late AMD (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 0.4-7.7), either geographic atrophy (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.07-4.6) or neovascular AMD (OR, 3.4; 95% CI, 0.3-41.4).


CONCLUSIONS
Persons with the CFH CC genotype at any given age have an increased likelihood of bilateral compared with unilateral involvement of some early AMD lesions.
Pai
Amy Shih-I
AS
Centre for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, and Westmead Millennium Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Mitchell
Paul
P
Rochtchina
Elena
E
Iyengar
Sudha
S
Wang
Jie Jin
JJ
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017242:Complement Factor H / Q000235:genetics; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
C493495:CFH protein, human; D017242:Complement Factor H