Особливості прогресування вікової макулярної дегенерації у пацієнтів української популяції: два роки спостереження.

Background. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) often leads to a decrease in visual acuity, loss of earning capacity and a reduction in the quality of life among elderly and aging patients whose number is increasing due to demographic processes, a decrease in the birth rate and an increase in the proportion of the elderly. Aim: to study the features of age-related macular degeneration progression in patients from Ukrainian population during two years of supervision. Materials and methods. The study included 152 patients (302 eyes) diagnosed with AMD stages 1 (60 eyes), 2 (54 eyes), 3 (68 eyes) and 4 (120 eyes) according to the AREDS recommendations. At the beginning of the study, after 1 and 2 years, the age, sex, smoking status, presence of changes in retinal pigment, subretinal neovascular membrane (SNM) and geographic atrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium, drusen of various calibers (small, medium and large) were recorded. MedStat and MedCalc v.15.1 software packages (MedCalc Software bvba) were used for statistical research. Results. A late age of AMD development (82.9 % of patients were 60–85 years old) was detected. Patients with AMD stage 4 were nine years older than those with stage 1 (p < 0.001). The ratio of women to men was 3 : 2, which did not depend on age and AMD stage. One third of the patients smoked, and most of them were men (79.2 %). Smoking status caused a more severe course of AMD. The AMD progression was determined by an increase in the frequency of changes in the retinal pigment epithelium, SNM and geographic atrophy whose frequency increased every year (by 5.7–21.2 %). A decreased visual acuity also corresponded to AMD stage and tended to worsen during follow-up. The number of small drusen decreased with the AMD progression and during observation, while the number of large drusen increased. Conclusions. The features of the eye affected by AMD have been determined, with the impact of age, sex, and smoking status being specified; a slow deterioration of visual acuity and an increase in the frequency of ophthalmic manifestations are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]