Biarnés Marc, Monés Jordi, Alonso Jordi, Arias Luis
Institut de la màcula i la retina, Centre Mèdic Teknon, Barcelona, Spain.
Optom Vis Sci. 2011 Jul;88(7):881-9. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0b013e31821988c1.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the main cause of legal blindness in older patients in developed countries, and geographic atrophy (GA) represents the advanced form of dry AMD. Although it accounts for one third of the cases of late AMD and is responsible for 20% of the cases of severe visual loss due to the disorder. GA currently lacks effective treatment, whereas antiangiogenic therapies have been shown to be successful in managing choroidal neovascularization, the other form of late AMD. Recent advances in GA epidemiology, etiology, genetics, and imaging techniques have renewed the interest in this entity, which is a cause of progressive visual loss even in treated patients with neovascular AMD. This knowledge has triggered many clinical trials targeting different molecules shown to be associated with the disease, and it is hoped that this research will translate into effective drugs for GA in the near future.
年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）是发达国家老年患者法定失明的主要原因，而地图样萎缩（GA）是干性AMD的晚期形式。尽管它占晚期AMD病例的三分之一，并且是该疾病导致20%严重视力丧失病例的原因。GA目前缺乏有效的治疗方法，而抗血管生成疗法已被证明在治疗脉络膜新生血管（晚期AMD的另一种形式）方面是成功的。GA在流行病学、病因学、遗传学和成像技术方面的最新进展重新引发了人们对这一疾病实体的兴趣，即使在接受治疗的新生血管性AMD患者中，它也是导致进行性视力丧失的原因。这些知识引发了许多针对不同与该疾病相关分子的临床试验，人们希望这项研究在不久的将来能转化为治疗GA的有效药物。
