Description
Dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a chronic disease of the eye.
About 10% of the time it can lead to blindness if treatment is not administered appropriately.
If an eye receives treatment, further vision loss can be prevented.
The retina is the part of the eye that receives all the visual images and converts them to a signal that the brain can understand. If the retina is damaged, the brain can’t understand the images that the eyeball receives from the outside world.
The macula is the part of the retina that is responsible for your central vision. The retina is located inside the eye, in its posterior portion.
Dry macular degeneration occurs before wet macular degeneration. Dry macular degeneration leads up to wet macular degeneration. In dry macular degeneration, the layers of the retina begin to die off in a patchy manner. Later on in the disease process, abnormal blood vessels begin to grow near these abnormal patches. This is the wet stage of macular degeneration.
Even in the absence of abnormal blood vessels (and hence, the absence of wet macular degeneration), the vision can become poor in dry macular degeneration due to the patchy areas of retina dysfunction coalescing and combining to form larger, confluent areas of vision loss, predominantly near the center of vision.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of dry macular degeneration is assisted by using three pieces of information: a dilated eye examination by your retina specialist, and two tests called fluorescein angiography (F.A. for short) and optical coherence tomography (O.C.T. for short). Using these three pieces of information in combination allows the retinal specialist to make the diagnosis of dry macular degeneration with a high degree of certainty. On examination, yellowish deposits called druse are found in the retina. While examining your eye, your doctor will be looking for signs of worsening to wet macular degeneration that he has learned to appreciate after having examining tens of thousands of eyes with macular degeneration.
Treatment
Dry AMD may be helped by taking the AREDS2 formula vitamin supplement. Also, stopping smoking is extremely beneficial in helping to slow down macular degeneration. Further, a healthy diet and exercise help macular degeneration. Finally, some recent studies suggest a possible link between aspirin use and worsening of macular degeneration. Although the findings are a cause of concern, there is simply not enough evidence at this time to recommend stopping aspirin if you have wet macular degeneration. Besides, aspirin has been show to have numerous other beneficial effects in reducing certain problems with heart attacks, strokes, and cancers. For patients with visual problems in their daily life, an evaluation with a low vision specialist can be beneficial.