December 17, 2021
Can a simple blood sample give information about the eyes? The ophthalmologist Inês Laíns explains that it can:
The truth is that one of the most frequent causes of poor vision with people over 50 is called age-related macular degeneration, which we usually call AMD, and one of the problems with this disease is that it doesn't cause symptoms until very advanced stages. In other words, people's vision remains normal, even though they have macular degeneration in their eye and it can develop into blindness. And the problem is that we don't really understand why some people stay the same and some people get worse over time. So our team has done work that shows that with a blood test - yes, a blood test - we can identify markers of macular degeneration, that is, we can distinguish who has macular degeneration and who does not, and we can identify markers of progression in the disease.
And why is this important? Not only because it can allow you to diagnose people who don't know they have macular degeneration, but also because it can allow you to see who are those who are most at risk of progression.
The conversation with your eye doctor is available on the TSF website.
With the support of the Portuguese Society of Ophthalmology.
