A recent study on patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) highlights that ophthalmologists might be the first physicians to detect high-risk cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) , particularly in asymptomatic patients.Researchers analyzed the eyes of 200 AMD patients with retinal imaging to determine which of them had subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDDs), a form of early AMD. These deposits form just beneath the light-sensitive retina cells. They found that AMD patients with severe CVDs and stroke were nine times more likely to have SDDs than those without them.
The possible explanation is that the retina gets damaged by either CVDs that reduce blood circulation throughout the body or by a blocked carotid artery, which directly hinders blood flow to the eye. This is a first-of-its-kind research to link CVDs and carotid artery diseases with eye disorders. The study has opened…
