Genetic research is one of the most exciting aspects of
health care. New discoveries are
constantly being made that link the individuality of our genes to the general
health of our bodies. Some lead to
better forms of treatment, and some are just bad news. While no discovery, in my opinion, is a bad
one, there are certain genetic diseases that simply just don’t have good forms
of treatment.
However,
I’m here to talk about an eye condition that has a treament.
There is a very small area in our
eyes called the macula that is dedicated to vision involving fine detail. It is one of the most important areas because
it allows us to see the 20/20 line of letters.
Specific changes to that area could lead to something called macular
degeneration. This is a condition
that leads to progressive loss of 20/20 vision.
Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness among adults over
the age of 55. High blood pressure, a
history of smoking, poor diet, sun light exposure to the eye, and having a
relative with macular degeneration all put you at a higher risk for developing
the disease. There are different types
of macular degeneration, and for simplicity’s sake, I will break them up into
two categories; the “not-so-bad form” and the “bad form”. The difference is the “bad form” leads to
severe vision loss, while the “not-so-bad” form usually does not.
How a person potentially sees when suffering
from a very severe form of macular degeneration .
Our genetic make up is one of the
biggest risk factors for this condition.
In fact, it has been argued that if we eliminated all of the genetic
risk factors, the disease would not exist in 70% of the population! Now lets move on to the good news. Recently, a genetic test has been developed
to determine your risk of developing the “bad form” of the disease. With the use of this test, we can now
identify which patients we need to monitor more frequently versus which
patients we only have to see on an annual basis. More frequent monitoring for patients has the
potential to identify early changes related to the “bad form” of the disease
that should be treated before severe vision loss occurs. There have been studies that have shown more
frequent monitoring and early treatment for higher risk patients lead to a much
better visual outcome.
A view of your relative risk of getting the "bad form" of macular
degeneration. Level 1 represents the lowest amount of risk while Level 5
would represent the highest.
If we identify early changes to the
area of the macula at EyeWorks, we will schedule you back for an office visit.
During the office visit we will take a three dimensional scan of the macula and
gather your genetic information in the form of a cheek swab. This allows us to get an in-depth view of
that important part of your eye and further determine your risk level so that
we may initiate an appropriate treatment protocol. Macular degeneration is a serious
vision-threatening disease that can be managed.
It is so important to determine your risk level so that we may help
preserve your vision during your long and happy life. Do you know your risk level?
No comments:
Post a Comment