Research Paper
Regression of Some High-risk Features of Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) in Patients Receiving Intensive Statin Treatment
Demetrios G. Vavvas ⁎ Anthony B. Daniels ⁎ Zoi G. Kapsala, JeremyW. Goldfarb, Emmanuel Ganotakis, John I. Loewenstein, Lucy H. Young, Evangelos S. Gragoudas, Dean Eliott, Ivana K. Kim Miltiadis K. Tsilimbaris ⁎ JoanW. Miller ⁎
Retina Service, Department of Ophthalmology, Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Retina Service, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
1. Introduction
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the developed world (Miller, 2013; Wong
et al., 2014). The non-neovascular or “dry” form accounts for 85% of all AMD and is characterized by accumulation of extracellular deposits, termed drusen (Sarks et al., 1994), between the basal lamina of retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) and inner collagenous layer of Bruch’s membrane (BM), which is the inner wall of the choroid. Progression to advanced AMD involves atrophy of the RPE and overlying photoreceptors (geographic atrophy), and/or choroidal neovascularization (neovascular or “wet” AMD).While there are effective anti-angiogenic therapies for the less prevalent neovascular AMD, there are no effective treatments for the more prevalent dry form (Miller, 2013).
