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Patients present earlier with AMD symptoms
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CRETEIL, France — Patients seem to be presenting earlier with symptoms of age-related macular degeneration, according to a study here. This change may have implications for assessing the visual outcome of treatments for the disease, the study authors said.
Researchers here retrospectively reviewed 1,598 patients affected with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) during two similar 8-month periods in 1994 and 1998 to determine the duration of presentation delay — i.e., the duration of visual symptoms before initial presentation.
They found that in 1998 a significantly higher percentage of patients presented earlier with symptoms of AMD (within 6 months of onset) than in 1994. Conversely, a significantly smaller percentage of patients in 1998 presented later with AMD symptoms (more than 6 months after onset) than in 1994.
The authors note that further study is needed to determine whether this phenomenon of earlier presentation reflects a global improvement in the management of macular diseases.
The study is published in the December issue of Clinical Investigation.