(PreserveMacForte.com) University of North Carolina researchers have spearheaded a study looking into whether or not a new blood test can accurately detect the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to its blindness-causing wet form, said UNC Health Care on January 24.
According to the article, AMD happens to be the western world’s leading cause of central vision impairment, and people who are diagnosed with the condition could have difficulty driving, watching television and reading. The article noted that up to 11 million Americans have some type of AMD, whether the dry form or the wet form. AMD, which generally impacts the retirement-age crowd, occurs when the macula deteriorates and develops blind spots and/or distorted vision.
Dr. Sai H. Chavala, identified in the article as the UNC School of Medicine’s director of the laboratory for retinal rehabilitation and assistant professor of ophthalmology and cell biology and physiology, said in the article that people living with AMD first develop the dry form, which can fortunately be diagnosed via a regular eye exam. He added in the article, however, that approximately one-fifth of AMD patients eventually develop the wet form of AMD, which occurs when blood vessels develop beneath the retina. These anomalous blood vessels can leak blood and other liquids that can result in permanent retinal damage and, consequently, permanent vision impairment. Because there is presently no way to determine the exact timing of this occurrence, medical professionals have no means “of preventing it,” explained Dr. Chavala in the article.
According to the article, the researchers’ study considered how it might be possible to forecast the progression from dry AMD to wet AMD. While no such test actually exists right now to chart the progression, Chavala said in the article that “one of the most coveted” goals in the “vision science” realm is coming up with a way to do just that. He explained that a “clinical test that” provides an accurate timeline for “impending conversion” to wet AMD from dry AMD is the “first step” towards coming up with remedies to thwart the “switch to wet” AMD.
As part of the study, researchers employed the Cell Search system to identify and analyze endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). According to the article, these cells, which happen to be a stem cell subset, are less common compared to other blood cells. Prior research employing fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) has shown that EPCs are more numerous in wet AMD patients than in dry AMD patients.
Dr. Chavala and his team of researchers believed that ARCA, a technology that can calculate rare cell populations consistently, was more appropriate as a diagnostic blood test. The study, according to the article, compared traditional FACS and ARCA in close to two dozen subjects with macular degeneration. What the researches found, according to the article, was a “trend favoring the ARCA technology in” identifying “a higher number of EPCs” in the group of subjects with wet AMD compared to the group of subjects with dry AMD. The trend, said Dr. Chavala, was not picked up with traditional FACS. He added in the article that the study demonstrated that the ARCA technology may be a “powerful tool for monitoring progression” of AMD. He added that more research will be needed to corroborate “this test for” identifying and stopping “the conversion” to wet AMD from dry AMD.