Irish alerted to AMD risk

Irish people have a genetic predisposition to age-related macular degeneration according to new research released for AMD Awareness Week.

The Irish Times (September 25) reported that genetic abnormalities associated with AMD, identified in white populations elsewhere in the world, were very common among Irish AMD patients too. There are an estimated 70,000 people in Ireland with AMD.

A study co-directed by eye surgeon Mark Cahill of the Royal Victoria Eye Hospital in Dublin and Dr Marian Humphries in the department of genetics, Trinity College Dublin looked at more than 200 patients with AMD and compared them with a group of more than 100 volunteers of the same age without the condition. They found that participants with changes in single nucleotide polymorphisms were more likely to be in the group with macular degeneration.