For patients with age-related macular degeneration, ophthalmologists try to predict who will progress to the advanced stage so that we can watch more carefully and institute treatment as soon as appropriate. While we know that advancing age, smoking, high blood pressure and other vascular diseases are associated with progression and as shown in the Age Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), certain antioxidant vitamins and zinc will slow the progression in 25% of patients (more about this later), there have been few good ways to actually calculate a particular individual's risk of progression.
Now Macula Risk offers a simple in-office test that merely involves a swab from the cheek to obtain DNA which, along with other pertinent data, can identify a person's individual risk of progressing to advanced macular degeneration. Thus, we can now determine with greater accuracy, who is more likely to progress.
Just as exciting, and perhaps more so, is the second part of the test called Vita Risk.
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As noted above, in the AREDS study, it was found that certain antioxidants and zinc slowed the progression to advanced macular degeneration in 25% of patients. When they went back however and applied genetic testing to the study subjects, they found that in those with certain genetic profiles, as high as 70% benefited from treatment and in those with other genetic profiles, some were actually harmed by the AREDS protocol. In other words, it seems that one's genetic makeup affects how he/she will respond to medication.
The implication of this could be astounding! The FDA considers drugs effective if there is a 15% improvement over placebo. But what if that was broken down further by genetic markers? Maybe we could learn who will respond 100% and who will not respond at all! To date, studies are done on a group of random subjects. Maybe that will need to be classified by DNA makeup. Think about it. Drugs could be more targeted to individuals resulting in better treatment resulting in better effectiveness with fewer adverse effects.
Find out what's happening in Snellvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Obviously, this whole concept is in its infancy, but it certainly is exciting to be part of such a new and revolutionary idea. CarlinVision is currently offering this testing so ask your doctor if you are interested and watch for this to blossom in the future!
