The Human Biology in Medical Field

Posts Tagged ‘Degeneration’

by Community Eye Health

Article by homas Carter

For a large number of aging people, they are suffering from juvenile macular degeneration. And a lot of young people also want to know more about juvenile macular degeneration in order to take precaution to this eye disease. However, they don’t have a clear idea or find little information to learn about this. The following will give some introduction on juvenile macular degeneration and the recent researches on this eye disease.

First let us talk about the macula. Macula is a very important part of our eyes. It is in the center of the retina at the back of the eyes. What functions do they have? Actually our detailed and straight ahead vision is both decided by macula. So you can imagine if there is some problem with our macula, what kind of situation it will be. Researches show there are several forms of juvenile macular degeneration that can affect the macula, which finally lead to genetic mutation.

Among all forms of juvenile macular degeneration, vitelliform macular degeneration is the best as it can be regarded as macular dystrophy. Vitelliform macular degeneration is a hereditary eye disease and can be transferred by genes. People can be diagnosed of vitelliform macular degeneration at their childhood or adolescence. Though it is minor disease, there are also several stages for it. There is a layer under the macula, caused retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The first stage is there is a yellow cyst under the RPE, but this can not influence our vision for many years. And the second stage is when the cyst ruptures, and then the RAPE will be flooded by fluid and yellow deposits. The third stage is more serious. Patients will lose their central vision as the fluid and deposits will cause RPE degeneration. However, the peripheral vision still exists.

The most common form of macular degeneration is Stargardt’s disease which was first discovered in 1901 by Karl Stargardt, who is a German ophthalmologist. After that, he did a lot of researches on this disease. And researches show the responsible gene, ABCR may be useful for future gene therapy. But as the clinical trials for different forms of juvenile macular degeneration are few, scientists still do not have enough information and can not prove the better way to treat it. And now there is a assumption that DHA dietary supplement may have some effect in improving macular functions with the ELOVL4 mutation. But scientists still need to do a lot of researches on patients with Stargardt-like macular dystrophy or Stargardt macular dystrophy to prove this assumption.

If you want to know more about vision knowledge, then feel free to visit http://vision.firmoo.com/eye-diseases

Macular Degeneration; Dry and Wet Types; AREDS Result; Vitamins, antioxidants and Zinc; Omega3 fatty acids; Treatment of new vessels with VEGF inhibitors, Lucentis, Avastin; Risk Factors; age, race, smoking, family history, genetics, diet; Laser treatment of new vessels
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by pmarkham

Article by homas Carter

Dry Macular Degeneration (AMRD) is now one of greatest threats to those who are over 50. Among all cases of Macular Degeneration (AMD), 90% are AMRD. There are severe AMRD of different sorts. Here is an introduction to each of those problems respectively.

When the retina is filled with many wastes, the patient may suffer from drusen, soft drusen and diagram drusen. And the medications will become useless, for the filled cornea will let nothing in.

When the retina becomes thinner and thinner, sufferers may suffer from blurriness in their central vision. The result of this process may lead to atrophic AMRD. Sufferers of this problem will gradually lose their central vision. And when it comes to its late stage, the dry form may develop into the wet form.

If the retina of a patient become thin and is looked white, he may suffer from choroidal sclerosis. Some choroidal blood vessels are found beneath the damaged area. However, no treatable method has been found for this problem.

If the cornea is divided into several separate parts, patient may suffer from geographic AMD. The disease gets worsen while each of those parts becomes larger. Some smokers run very high risk of getting it.

If any injury occurs to cornea in the middle part, patients will suffer from fovemacular Dystrophy. The macular of the sufferers will be deformed. With such family history, people may get it when they are between 30 and 50 at age.

When the cornea become thin, thick, drusen or pigmented, the patient may suffer from retinal pigment epithelial hypertrophy.

In the aging process, people’s cornea will change in some respects and many will suffer from AMRD. In the metabolism, if retina may become thin, people may suffer from vision loss; if the retina becomes thick, due to the accumulations of some wastes, people may suffer from changes on pigmentation. Therefore, people should be very attentive to any changes on their retina and vision, be they young or old. If there is any symptom, just ask the eye doctors for help.

If you want to know more about vision knowledge, then feel free to visit http://vision.firmoo.com/eye-diseases

More Retinal Degeneration Articles

by Community Eye Health

Article by homas Carter

There are misconceptions among people who believe that one eye problems may aggravates any of other ones, for example, macular degeneration will aggravate glaucoma, or cataracts will aggravate macular degeneration. The fact is that macular degeneration is independent, and it is not tend to relate to some other conditions. In order to let you know they are unrelated, let’s have a view of each eye condition respectively.

Macular degeneration is always referred as age-related macular degeneration. It is a medical condition which usually affects the elders that result in a loss of vision in the center of the visual field because of damage to the retina.

A cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye. It is related to aging, which is very common in older people. Although both macular degeneration and cataract are related to aging, they are totally two different types of eye condition. The former is something affecting the retina or the macula while the latter is not, and a cataract, unlike macular degeneration, can be cured by removing or replacing by new lenses.

Glaucoma is a disease that affects the optic nerve and involves loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern and it is usually caused by high pressure. In a closed and fluid-filled system, if there are too much fluid in eyes, eyes will suffer from increasing pressure. Glaucoma can be a very serious eye condition, if not treated in time, a risk of complete loss of eyesight can be caused. As a matter of fact, glaucoma is fairly easy to be treated at its early stage.

Diabetic retinopathy is damage to the retina caused by complications of diabetes mellitus, which can eventually lead to blindness. It is a leading cause of blindness in American adults. Patients with diabetic retinopathy suffer from vessels bleeding or constricting, causing retinal detachment. This eye condition is usually treated by laser in the early stage. Some patients may even need focal laser surgery more than once to control the leaking fluid. Diabetic retinopathy is not related to macular degeneration, but has an influence on glaucoma and cataracts.

If you want to know more about vision knowledge, then feel free to visit http://vision.firmoo.com/eye-diseases

Describes the aging Retina and how it evolves into Macular Degeneration. Pictures of Retinas, young, middle age, older. Dry and wet Macular Degeneration.
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by Community Eye Health photos

Article by Beatrices

Macular degeneration is considered to be an age-related eye disease, which is one of the most common eye diseases among aged people. However, it is a pity that some people do not know much about it, when there is central vision impairment, they do not take measures to treat it in time, and finally lead to more vision loss. The following will give some introduction on macular degeneration, read ahead and you will benefit a lot.

What is the cause for macular degeneration? At the beginning, let us learn something about macula. Macula is in the center of the retina, which is in charge of detail vision, such as reading, driving, or other daily tasks. With ages, the macula will become weak, which will lead to macular degeneration. And if there is an injury to the macula, people are more likely to develop macular degeneration. For people with macular degeneration, they can not see the detailed information clearly. For example, for the people coming in your direction, you can see the outline of the person, but can not see clearly their face or clothing, as our macula is weakened and can not allow us to see details clearly. Though macular degeneration is an age-related eye disease, this does not mean all children or adults can be protected away from this eye disease. It is the case that some adults or children maybe affected by this eye disease, but it is called macular dystrophy instead.

The levels of low vision caused by macular degeneration are not the same for different types of macular degeneration. The first symptom eye doctor can notice is drusen in the macula, which are yellow deposits in small or large size and may have some connection with high cholesterol. If people are found to have drusen in the macula, it means they are at the beginning stage of developing macular degeneration and should be treated instantly.

There are mainly two forms of macular degeneration, dry form of AMD and wet form of AMD. Wet form of AMD is caused by the bleeding and leakage of blood vessels beneath the retina. The bleeding and leakage of excessive blood vessels will bring damage to the rods and cones in the center of the eye and lead to low vision. When the retinal pigment epithelium atrophies, it will take some damage to the rods and cones and cause central vision loss, which finally lead to dry form of AMD.

For people with dry advanced AMD, they can take in some Vitamin supplement from leafy vegetables rich in antioxidants and lutein. And for people with wet form of AMD, they can have some drugs to relief from this eye disease. Besides, they can also wear some special glasses to enable them to see clearly.

If you want to know more about vision knowledge, then feel free to visit http://vision.firmoo.com/eye-diseases

Macular degeneration research and the artificial retina. Vision loss from retinal diseases including macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa may be treated in the future with an artificial or bionic eye.

by Community Eye Health photos

Article by MacularDegenerationDisease.com

Age related macular degeneration (ARMD) is generally age related and happens especially to those who definitely are 50 years and earlier mentioned, even though there may be exceptional cases of occurences in much younger affected individuals.

By itself, ARMD will not bring about total blindness.Warning signs of ARMD includes:

a. Drusen. Drusen is the deposit of a few yellowish debris between the retina and the choroid, which causes your retina to be detached. This retina is full of nerves that will communicates sight while the choroid provides the blood supply towards the macula which is the key part of the retina. Accumulated build up may actually cause seen yellowish signs towards eye when looked over closely.

b. Pigmentary changes. This is explained already by the drusen.

c. You may also have hemorrhaging in the eye, together with hard exudates, subretinal / intra retinal substance changes.

d. Patient may also suffer wither up, incipient and geographic.

e. There could possibly be blurred vision for all with dry ARMD. Eye sight loss is slow and mostly concentrated in the central location, and the blurred vision may look like a new merging of a pair of images into a single, almost like a black-hole drawing up the visions to 1 centra point in the middle. Reading cannot be done without central vision.

f. Decrease of visual acuity.

g. There may be preferential hyperacuity perimetry alterations for cases regarding wet ARMD.

h. Core scotomas, meaning to say that there may be shadows or even missing areas of vision.

i. A loss in contrast sensitivity, additionally with difficulties discerning colors. This means that it’s going to be hard to tell dissimilarities of colors from mild and dark selection. For example, patient most likely are not able to tell yellow-colored from orange ( gentle color range) or maybe purple and navy blue (dark color range). The loss of contrast awareness can be easily measured by way of a contrast sensitivity test either tested from your own home or by a watch specialist.

j. A great exposure of vibrant light may actually spark a longer time of recovery.

k. Distorted visions. Straight lines can happen wavy, and closer strains may look joined or blank. Computer system courses called metamorphopsia.

Some cases connected with ARMD may lead to complications for example severe stroke or trauma, untreated glaucoma and other seemingly unrelated complications. Very few patients may degenerate to the point of total aesthetic loss, as the macula just occupies about 2% in the retina. However, since it is placed right in the middle of the retina, visible problems seemed zoomed as it is right in the core visual periphery.

Even though macula is only 2% of the retina, half this visual cortex is dedicated to processing information from this. The loss of central perspective definitely affects the affected person very much since we simply cannot read without core vision.

Some equivalent symptoms may be due to Epiretinal membrane or macular pucker. This specific simply means leaking arteries in the eye. Macular pucker could happen to anyone regardless of age. Meanwhile, macular degeneration is normally age related, with an rough of 30% of people in between 75 to Eighty five years of age being affected by the item.

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by pmarkham

Macular degeneration is considered to be an age-related eye disease, which is one of the most common eye diseases among aged people. However, it is a pity that some people do not know much about it, when there is central vision impairment, they do not take measures to treat it in time, and finally lead to more vision loss. The following will give some introduction on macular degeneration, read ahead and you will benefit a lot.

What is the cause for macular degeneration? At the beginning, let us learn something about macula. Macula is in the center of the retina, which is in charge of detail vision, such as reading, driving, or other daily tasks. With ages, the macula will become weak, which will lead to macular degeneration. And if there is an injury to the macula, people are more likely to develop macular degeneration. For people with macular degeneration, they can not see the detailed information clearly.

For example, for the people coming in your direction, you can see the outline of the person, but can not see clearly their face or clothing, as our macula is weakened and can not allow us to see details clearly. Though macular degeneration is an age-related eye disease, this does not mean all children or adults can be protected away from this eye disease. It is the case that some adults or children maybe affected by this eye disease, but it is called macular dystrophy instead.

The levels of low vision caused by macular degeneration are not the same for different types of macular degeneration. The first symptom eye doctor can notice is drusen in the macula, which are yellow deposits in small or large size and may have some connection with high cholesterol. If people are found to have drusen in the macula, it means they are at the beginning stage of developing macular degeneration and should be treated instantly.

There are mainly two forms of macular degeneration, dry form of AMD and wet form of AMD. Wet form of AMD is caused by the bleeding and leakage of blood vessels beneath the retina. The bleeding and leakage of excessive blood vessels will bring damage to the rods and cones in the center of the eye and lead to low vision. When the retinal pigment epithelium atrophies, it will take some damage to the rods and cones and cause central vision loss, which finally lead to dry form of AMD.

For people with dry advanced AMD, they can take in some Vitamin supplement from leafy vegetables rich in antioxidants and lutein. And for people with wet form of AMD, they can have some drugs to relief from this eye disease. Besides, they can also wear some special glasses to enable them to see clearly.

If you want to know more about vision knowledge, then feel free to visit http://vision.firmoo.com/eye-diseases

by Community Eye Health photos

Macular degeneration is one of the most frequent causes of impaired vision in the UK. This painless eye condition is common among people above the age of 50. According to a report published by National Health Service (NHS) in 2008, approximately 30% of individuals above the age of 75 were suffering from the preliminary stage of macular degeneration and 7% had crossed to the advanced stages. According to one estimate, more than 239,000 people will be affected by age-related macular degeneration by 2011.

What is Macular Degeneration?

Dry macular degeneration is an eye condition that leads to the loss of vision from the centre of the retina, which we use to view fine detail. It means that a person suffering from severe macular degeneration may not be able to read, write or drive. To perform all these activities, we focus our vision through the central portion of the retina, which is called the macula.

This is what enables us to focus on and view subjects that are directly in front of our eyes. The degeneration of the macula does not affect peripheral vision or side vision as severely.

Wet macular degeneration is caused by abnormal blood vessels growing which then leak. This can force the retina to lift away from the eye wall, which then can cause swelling and affect the person’s eyesight. A common symptom for a sufferer of wet AMD is to see straight lines appearing wavy. This needs a trip to the doctor immediately as eyesight lost through wet AMD cannot be retrieved.

Causes of Macular Degeneration

Macular degeneration commonly affects people above 50 years of age. Different health conditions lead to different forms of macular degeneration.

As a person grows older, wear and tear affects the body, especially if the owner has a poor diet of high cholesterol combined with smoking and high blood pressure. Physical changes may occur in the central retinal tissue, the macular, and the rods and cones (or photoreceptors) begin to break down, resulting in deteriorating eyesight. As this worsens, central vision becomes hazy or blurred. This is called dry macular degeneration.

Wet macular degeneration starts with new blood vessels growing in the retina. The new blood vessels can leak blood, causing the retina to lift away from the eye wall and in turn severely damaging the person’s vision. Eyesight destroyed in this way cannot be repaired.

Macular degeneration is a rare phenomenon at a lower age. In younger people, this problem can surface due to some physical defects existing since birth. Inherited genetic disorders can also lead to macular degeneration among younger people.

Macular Degeneration: Major Symptoms

Similar to diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration starts showing measurable symptoms at a very advanced stage. The two major symptoms of this visual defect are:

Loss of ability to judge the fine details of an object or image.
Loss of ability to understand contrast variation.

Specific symptoms of dry macular degeneration are hazy vision, the inability to identify faces, need for brighter light when reading and difficulty in reading the newspaper. Wet macular degeneration patients will experience more evident symptoms, such as major visual distortion and blind spots.

There are several vision correction methods available to control wet macular degeneration. For dry AMD, control is usually effected by changing to a healthier diet and lifestyle, such as cutting out smoking and reducing fat intake. To detect macular degeneration at an early stage, consult an eye doctor immediately if experiencing changes in eyesight.

For more information on macular degeneration treatment, browse the internet for specialist eye hospitals. Their websites can provide detailed information on the symptoms and treatment available. Look for a specialist provider of ophthalmic services. Make sure they focus on personalised treatment tailored to each of their patients as you’ll want to ensure the best possible results in an environment where you can feel relaxed and well cared for. They should also be using advanced technologies and have leading ophthalmic surgeons on their staff.

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by pmarkham

One of the leading causes of blindness for people 55 years and older is a condition called macular degeneration. Nearly ten million people in the U.S. are affected by it. This is more than those blinded by glaucoma and cataracts combined. Macular degeneration is gradual and painless that many may not realize they have unless they have been screened by an experienced ophthalmologist.

Causes of Macular Degeneration

Macular degeneration, or age related macular degeneration (AMD), is caused by the cells in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) wearing out. The retina has a layer of cells behind it called the macula. The cells of the macula are made up of rods and cones, and are in turn made up of two segments. The inner segment produces proteins that respond to light, while the outer segment stores and uses the proteins. When the outer segment wears out, they are removed by RPE cells.

The inner segment then replaces the degraded outer segment cells. When the RPE cells begin to degrade and cannot remove waste anymore, the result is yellow, fat-like deposits that form below the rods and cones.

Symptoms of Macular Degeneration

Symptoms include:
• Fuzzy or distorted vision
• Areas of shadow in central vision
• Blurred printed words
• Difficulty recognizing faces
• Difficulty adapting to seeing in levels of low light
• Need for very bright light for near distance vision activities
• Difficulty recognizing faces

Treatment of Macular Degeneration

No treatment can undo the damage done by AMD, but there are certain things you can do to slowdown the progress of the disease. Early stage AMD may be slowed by a high dose regimen of vitamin supplements. These are:

• 500 mg of vitamin C
• 400 IU of vitamin E
• 80 mg of zinc oxide
• 15 mg of beta carotene
• 2 mg of copper

Advanced stage AMD may be slowed by taking the drugs Lucentis, Macugen, or Visudyne. Speak to your ophthalmologist about which regimen may benefit you the most.

by pmarkham

Article by jekky

Has become the blindness in the elderly over the age of 65 the culprit. But the good news is that there are a number of new drug R & D line drug treatment of this disease. With the average age of the U.S. population increases, the incidence of age-related macular degeneration is rising. According to the U.S. Ophthalmology Society (National EyeInstitute) statistics, U.S. age-related macular degeneration patients have more than 800 million people. Effect of general and current high price of treatment, and after Glass Injection treatment is limited because of cost. Being on good effect and the higher cost of treatment rising demand push Pharmacy Companies are working to develop cost-effective high drug resistance to age-related macular degeneration. Present, for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, ranibizumab, bevacizumab intravitreal injection required monthly, this lengthy delivery process difficult patients. Pharmaceutical companies are trying to develop eye drops to treat age-related macular degeneration. Othera pharmaceutical companies are carrying out OT-551 for the treatment plan atrophy?? A newer type of dry age-related macular degeneration, has entered a phase clinical trials. In preclinical studies, OT-551 demonstrated anti- Oxidation , Anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory activity. OT-551 is carrying out plans atrophy multi-center clinical trial, a two-year trial, 198 patients in the U.S. more than 20 research centers to participate in the test eye. Othera is working with the U.S. National Eye Institute to conduct a joint OT-551, another phase clinical trial to determine the drug on patients with bilateral atrophy map the impact of disease progression. In 2008, the upcoming phase clinical trials, Othera the company will study the OT-551 as an assistant drug ranibizumab, ranibizumab injection to reduce the frequency, in order to achieve the same results or better results. There is a drug in the study is CoMentis’s ATG3 ophthalmic solution. Currently, ATG3 in Phase clinical study aimed to evaluate the old wet macular degeneration drug Security Sex. CoMentis company hopes to gain in 2008 for 6 months of the experimental data. This year in August, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Bayer Co-initiate the VEGFTrap-Eye Phase clinical trials. VEGFTrap-Eye is a humanized soluble vascular endothelial growth factor fusion protein, energy and all types of vascular endothelial growth factor A and placental growth factor binding, thereby treating age-related macular degeneration. The early phase clinical studies have shown that the use of VEGFTrap-Eye12 months after the party in the reduction of retinal thickness Mask Statistically significant differences. As retina more sensitive to oxidative injury, and many people believe that antioxidants can be added on the progress of the disease have a significant impact. In fact, the age-related eye disease study (AREDS) has shown that antioxidants in preventing and delaying the progress of the disease is very useful. Taking Vitamin C , E, zinc and -carotene in patients with patients taking the drug compared to the control, the incidence rate has dropped by 28%. Phase of age-related eye disease study (AREDS2) is on the lutein, zeaxanthin, and long-chain Omega-3 fatty acids delay the age-related macular degeneration in the progress of the role of the clinical trial were enrolled in December will be the end of this year. GenVec Inc. is looking for an innovative method of treatment of age-related macular degeneration. This treatment is currently in phase I clinical trials, the treatment delivery vector for use AdenovectorDNA pigment epithelium derived factor ( PE DF) gene. AdPEDF can effectively inhibit the growth of blood vessels into the eye is not correct, prevention of damage caused by loopholes in the blood vessels.

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