Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

For many elderly people, the term "age-related macular degeneration" often appears in many popular science articles, newspapers, and drug advertisements. Many people are not as familiar with age-related macular degeneration as common eye diseases such as cataract, glaucoma, and retinal detachment. What is age-related macular degeneration? What are the risks of age-related macular degeneration? How to treat it? Everyone must have a lot of confusion.

What is AMD?

First of all, figure out what a macula is. The macula is not a freckle in the eyes, nor is the abnormal tissue. The macula is part of the normal retina and is located in the central area of the retina. It is the most critical part of human vision. Its visual function accounts for 70% -80% of the entire eyeball. The macular area contains dense and large numbers of visual cells. It and its adjacent tissues, such as the vitreous body and choroid, will cause obvious visual disorder if any lesions appear, even if lesions are small.

Secondly, what is the degeneration? Degeneration is a basic pathological change, which is a morphological and functional change caused by a disorder of cellular metabolism. Degenerative diseases often have no clear external causes, often due to genetic factors and age. Not all fundus oculi diseases can be called degeneration. Similarly, it is unreasonable to collectively refer to various diseases in the macular region as " macular degeneration."

In our general sense, "macular degeneration" related to aging. It is more common in the elderly. It can blur the sharp, central vision. In medicine, we call it "age-related macular degeneration" (AMD). Age-related macular degeneration is one of the three generally blind eye diseases identified by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is tied with cataracts and glaucoma. In China, about 16% of people over 50 years of age have age-related macular degeneration, and the total number of patients is close to 40 million. In short, about 1 in 6 people over 50 years of age have age-related macular degeneration.

What are the main factors of AMD?

Environment: Smoking and work long hours in the strong ultraviolet radiation environment can lead to macular degeneration.

Age: With the grow of age, the prevalence increased year by year, the possibility of more than 80-year-old elderly people suffering from AMD more than 40%.

Genetic: If there is a family history of macular degeneration, it can happen at a certain age.

Other factors: Macular degeneration can also be caused by high myopia and other eye inflammation.

The study found that AMD is a eyes disease, that is, one eye suffering from AMD, and the other eye within five years the development of age-related macular degeneration probability of 40%.

What are the symptoms of AMD?

AMD is divided into two forms of atrophy and exudation. Atrophic age-related macular degeneration is caused by the accumulation of metabolites of visual cells under the retina, which causes atrophy of the retina. Exudative age-related macular degeneration is caused by retinal neovascularization. These neovascular like cracked water pipes, are easy to leak and bleed, which can damage the macula and vision.

What is the treatment for AMD?

If the elderly have blurred vision and deformed vision, eye doctors suggest that they should go to a professional eye hospital to check the fundus to eliminate the possibility of eye disease. Usually, they can close their eyes alternately and self-evaluate the visual function of one eye. They should also to ban or reduce smoking, do a balanced diet, and control the time spent using computers and watching TV.