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Rates of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)Created: May 26, 2009April 13, 2009 — The number of cases of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) will increase substantially between 2010 and 2050 in the United States as the population ages, according to the results of a simulation model of future AMD rates published in the April issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology. However, the use of antioxidant vitamins and other new therapies can reduce the resulting visual impairment and blindness by as much as 35%, researchers say."Newly discovered prophylactic and treatment therapies for AMD offer substantial improvements over past therapies and could potentially offset some degree of future AMD morbidity," write David B. Rein, PhD, from the Research Triangle Institute International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and colleagues from the Vision Health Cost-Effectiveness Study Group. "If widely adopted, new AMD treatments could alter the future burden of the disease by delaying the onset of advanced AMD and by diminishing the visual impact of [choroidal neovascularization (CNV)]." The goal of this study was to forecast the epidemiology of AMD in a variety of treatment scenarios up to the year 2050. |