Stopping Macular Degeneration

By Margot Kim
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (KFSN) --
It's the leading cause of vision loss for people over 60 -- macular degeneration slowly steals a person's eyesight, making reading, driving and every day living difficult. It's estimated nearly 18 million Americans will have the blinding condition by 2050. Treatment typically involved monthly injections, until now. A new technique could save a person's sight ... along with their time.
Judie Janes' handiwork keeps a long list of friends and family in style. Last year, she thought she made her last stitch.
"I couldn't thread a needle, couldn't see the needle to thread it on my sewing machine," Janes said.
Janes was diagnosed with wet macular degeneration. Abnormal blood vessels growing under her retina were bleeding.
"Vision is not something you can take for granted," Janes said.
Traditionally, doctors inject a drug into the eye that stops the vessels from growing, but it doesn't last.
"It's a big impact on lifestyle for the patients," Peter Sonkin, M.D., a retina specialist at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., told Ivanhoe. "They have to come in once a month, sometimes for a year or two or longer."
In a clinical trial, doctors use a small probe that delivers targeted low-dose radiation to the eye. The goal -- damage abnormal the blood vessels without affecting the healthy parts of the eye.
"The amount of radiation exposure to the body from going through this procedure is less than one would get flying from New York to Los Angeles in a plane," Carl Awh, M.D., also a retina specialist at Baptist Hospital, told Ivanhoe.
Then surgeons inject a dose of the traditional medication. They say the radiation-drug combo is more powerful, lasts longer and could eliminate the need for monthly injections.
"Nothing's blurry," Janes said. "I passed the eye test, and you know you can't fake an eye test."
Janes checks her vision every morning. She went from nearly legally blind -- 20/100 -- to 20/20 after surgery.
"Every morning after I do my little grid test, I look at that prayer and it lets me know how blessed I really am," she said.
A grandma who has too much going on to spend her golden years in the dark.
Patients are sedated for the outpatient surgery which takes about an hour. The technique is in the final stages of approval in Europe and should be available there in August. If the trial is successful in the U.S., the treatment could be available in less than two years.

Healthy Life: Macular Degeneration

By Ashley Hinson

Story Created: Aug 4, 2009 at 9:40 AM CDT

Story Updated: Aug 4, 2009 at 9:40 AM CDT
BACKGROUND: About 13 million Americans show signs of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that destroys central vision so things like reading, watching TV and driving are impossible. The condition also robs a person of the ability to see colors and fine detail. Because the U.S. population is expected to age rapidly, cases of AMD are only expected to increase. Middle-aged people have about a 2 percent risk of developing AMD, but this risk increases to almost 30 percent in those over 75 (Source: Emory Healthcare).
There are two types of AMD: wet and dry. Wet AMD occurs abnormal blood vessels behind the retina start to grow under the macula, the central part of the retina. Those blood vessels then leak blood and fluid that cause the macula to bulge outward. Symptoms of wet AMD often develop quickly and include seeing straight lines as wavy. Dry AMD happens when light-sensitive cells in the macula break down and blur central vision. The most common symptom of dry AMD is slightly blurred vision. The condition develops slowly.
TREATMENT: According the American Health Assistance Foundation, currently there is no treatment or cure for dry macular degeneration. However, taking a specific high-dose formula of vitamins and mineral supplements called the AREDS formula has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of progressing from intermediate to advanced or wet macular degeneration. Treatments for wet macular degeneration include drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors (Lucentis, Macugen); photocoagulation, which involves using a high-energy laser to destroy leaking blood vessels; and photodynamic therapy.
RELEARNING TO SEE: Doctors at Emory Eye Center in Atlanta, Ga., are working on a unique form of treatment for AMD that takes advantage of the brain's ability to reorganize itself to make up for vision loss. The therapy involves training AMD patients to focus on using the good cells that remain. "We are encouraging them or influencing them to be able to use those parts of the retina to be able to better utilize the residual vision," Susan Primo, O.D., M.P.H., Director of Low Vision Services at the Emory Eye Center, told Ivanhoe.
In the treatment, doctors first use a computer to map out the areas of the eye that are damaged. The machine then locates the areas that are still sensitive based on factors like thickness of the retina. The computer then uses biofeedback -- in this case a series of beeps that gets faster and louder as the patient moves closer to using the healthiest portion of the eye -- to train the patient to move their eye into the position that gives them the best possible vision.

For more information contact www.maculardegnerationassociation.org