Fed: Laser may be used to halt vision loss

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-2000
Fed: Laser may be used to halt vision loss

By Rada Rouse, National Medical Correspondent

BRISBANE, April 27 AAP - A new laser technique may be able to prevent the most common
form of age-related vision loss, a researcher said today.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is already treated with lasers to seal leaky
blood vessels, but usually after there has been some distortion of central vision.

Central vision - vital for reading, driving and recognising faces - becomes hampered
when a layer of abnormal fatty deposits accumulates behind the retina and stimulates the
production of blood vessels which, if untreated, seep and cause blindness.

Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital retinal consultant Dr Robyn Guymer has enrolled 60 patients
in an international trial to see if it is possible to prevent vision loss by intervening
early with people at risk.

"We want to see if we can use a gentle laser to get rid of the abnormalities before
these new blood vessels form," she said.

Dr Guymer, senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne's department of opthalmology
and a research fellow at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), said around 500
Australians and Europeans would take part in the trial, set up with London's Moorfields
Eye Hospital.

Meanwhile, the hunt is on to isolate the gene which causes AMD, already known to run in families.

CERA researchers were part of an international team which last year discovered the
gene responsible for two other inherited, early on-set eye diseases similar to AMD.

Dr Guymer said this breakthrough would lead to better understanding of AMD because
it may facilitate the development of an animal model to study the abnormalities behind
the retina.

Early detection of AMD was important now so that relatives of sufferers knew they were at risk.

The only steps which could currently be taken to reduce risk was to give up smoking
- which carries a four-fold increased risk - and to eat dark green leafy vegetables.

"The important thing is to recognise that age-related macular degeneration is a disease
process, not just something which happens due to old age," Dr Guymer said.

People aged over 50 years should have their eyes examined as 13 per cent will have
early signs of the disease.

More than 800,000 Australians have the disease, which is the most common cause of
legal blindness.

Dr Guymer will address a seminar on AMD in Melbourne on May 6, the first of a series
in five capital cities being staged by the Gift of Sight Society to raise public awareness.

AAP rr/geb/cd/br

KEYWORD: EYES

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.