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Cataract, late AMD linked in studies
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Previous cataract surgery may be associated with an increased prevalence of late age-related macular degeneration, analysis of three large population-based studies revealed.
Researchers at Baltimore’s Wilmer Eye Institute used data from the Salisbury Eye Evaluation, the Proyecto VER and the Baltimore Eye Survey to examine whether a link existed between previous cataract surgery and the onset of late age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The Salisbury study included 2,520 people between 65 and 84 years of age, mostly whites; the Proyecto VER included 4,774 Hispanic subjects at least 40 years of age and the Baltimore Eye Survey included 4,396 participants at least 40 years of age, of whom 42% were black.
A history of cataract surgery was found to be associated with an increased prevalence of late AMD in all three data sets, but the odds ratio were not individually statistically significant, the authors reported in the June issue of American Journal of Ophthalmology.
Late AMD was rare in the three studies, with 73 cases reported in the Salisbury study, 53 in Proyecto VER and 48 in Baltimore Eye Survey.
Additionally, having a severe cataract in the eye at the time of the clinical examination was also associated with higher odds of AMD in all three studies, although these figures were not statistically significant. Severe cataract was defined in the study as grade 4 or higher.
The combined data also showed that patients who had undergone cataract surgery 5 or more years earlier had 2.1 times the odds of developing late AMD.
“In our analyses, the finding that severe cataract was also associated with a modestly increased prevalence of late AMD indicates that it may not be the cataract surgery but perhaps factors leading to the cataract surgery that potentially have a causal relationship with late AMD,” the study authors reasoned.