ABSTRACT
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the
leading cause of visual loss in people older than 65
years in the United States (1-6). Approximately
200,000 Americans per year lose central vision due to
AMD and 50,000 will lose vision in both eyes.
Currently, there are an estimated 38 million American
seniors with a projected 88 million by 2030, which will
lead to a proportional increase in the population at risk
from vision loss due to AMD. Ninety percent of the
severe visual loss from AMD results from choroidal
neovascularization (CNV) (2,7,8). Although thermal
laser photocoagulation, photodynamic therapy, and
various drug therapies to treat neovascular AMD are
available or on the horizon, they have only proven to
be moderately effective and applicable to a subset of
patients (9-18). As a result, the development of
preventive strategies for patients at high risk of devel-
oping CNV is very desirable. Even a modestly effective
bilateral preventive treatment can have a substantial
impact on the development of late AMD (geographic
atrophy and/or CNV) and the rate of legal blindness
caused by CNV. According to one estimate, an inter-
vention that reduced the risk of developing CNV by
just 30% in eyes of patients with bilateral large drusen
could eventually halve the rate of bilateral blindness
from AMD (19).
