AAO Releases December Ophthalmology Research Highlights

Two studies in the Dec. 2009 issue of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, discuss how two heart disease treatments, low-dose aspirin and statin medications, may impact age-related macular degeneration risk and disease progression, according to an AAO news release.

The first study examined whether low-dose aspirin affected women's risk of AMD. Records for 39,421 women enrolled in the 10-year Women's Health Study were evaluated, and none of the women had AMD at the study outset. The women were randomly assigned to take low-dose aspirin (100 mg on alternate days) or a placebo. No large benefit was found from the low-dose aspirin, but a possible modest protective effect was indicated, according to researchers.

The risk of developing vision-impacting AMD was reduced by 18 percent in women who took low-dose aspirin, according to the release. During the 10-year study, 245 AMD cases developed, 111 in the aspirin group and 134 in the placebo group.

In the second study, researchers followed 744 patients enrolled in the Complications of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Prevention Trial for five or six years. The study was also the largest study of statin use in advanced AMD patients to date. Data did now show any large effects for statins decreasing advanced AMD risk in patients with large drusen in both eyes, according to researchers.

According to researchers, several factors may be masking a protective effect for statins, the most important being that most patients who take statins for cardiovascular disease are also at high risk for AMD. Statins may also need to be taken for a longer period of time than the CAPT's time frame, according to the release.

Read the release about heart disease medications' effect on age-related macular degeneration.