(www.PreserveMacForte.com) Liver transplant recipients have double the risk of getting age-related macular degeneration (AMD) than do people who have not undergone such a procedure, reported The Littlehampton Gazette recently.
According to the article, researchers looking into the matter found that some 65% of patients had some type of AMD. The researchers have recommended that liver transplant recipients be subject to ongoing optician monitoring. The article stressed that the unexpected figure happens to be double the level for the general population.
Over the course of the 36-month project, the team headed by Andrew Lotery from Southampton General Hospital assessed 223 Western European patients who were, one, at least 55 years old and who, two, had gotten liver transplants no less than five years ago. The goal was to look into the relationship between AMD and liver transplants.
Scientists already grasped that a mutation that causes complement factor H (CFH), a gene in the liver, is more prevalent in AMD patients, potentially leading to more eye inflammation.
According to the article, the researchers desired to discover if getting a new faultless liver had any impact on the start of macular degeneration and inflammation in the eye. They went this route as part of an effort to see if treatment could be given intravenously.
Prof. Lotery said in the article that the researchers’ findings are such that it is now clear that more focus needs to be placed on the eye health of people who get liver transplants. Prof. Lotery added that the research suggests that the “very large sums” of cash being directed towards “clinical trials of intravenous treatments” might ultimately “prove futile” and that attention needs to be paid to working on “direct treatments administered through the eye.”
According to the article, the expert said that the research does not seem to answer the question as to whether or not people diagnosed with AMD have some type of liver ailment. The expert, however, said that he would not rule out the possibility.
The research was published online in American journal Ophthalmology.
AMD, an eye ailment that damages central vision but not peripheral vision, generally only occurs in older people.
Reference: http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/regional/liver-recipients-at-high-amd-risk-1-5023515