Primary open angle glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration: is there a direct correlation between the diseases?

    Abstract

    Primary open angle glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration: is there a direct correlation between the diseases?

    V.N. Zarubina, V.M. Hokkanen, E.A. Derevtsova

    «North-Western state medical university named after I.I. Mechnikov», Saint-Petersburg

    In the Russian Federation, the incidence of AMD is more than 15 per 1,000 population and approximately 1 million individuals are affected with glaucoma. Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) affects about 33 million people worldwide, which according to various sources, amounts from 50% to 70% of all cases of glaucoma. Declining birth rates and increased life expectancy puts the problem in the socially and economically important category. AMD and glaucoma have similar risk factors: age, genetic susceptibility, smoking, cardio - vascular disease , eating disorders, pathogenic relationship with the primary genetic defects, pathological changes of the eyeball blood flow, metabolic changes (oxidative stress), immunopathological mechanisms (autoimmune damage).

    Involutional (dry) macular degeneration was observed in 41.1% of patients with POAG. There are publicationsIn various sources about the sequential appearance of glaucoma and AMD. According to some authors,an important role in the pathogenesis of primary open angle glaucoma and AMD plays reduction of the intraocular bloodflow. But it remains unclear whether glaucoma can be considered as a risk factor for AMD.

    Key words: age-related macular degeneration (dry form), primary open-angle glaucoma, incidence, characteristics of the course, VEGF.