Visual acuity after cataract surgery in patients with age-related macular degeneration: age-related eye disease study 2 report number 5.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate visual acuity outcomes after cataract surgery in persons with varying degrees of severity of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). DESIGN: Cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1232 eyes of 793 participants who underwent cataract surgery during the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2, a prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial of nutritional supplements for treatment of AMD. METHODS: Preoperative and postoperative characteristics of participants who underwent cataract extraction during the 5-year trial were analyzed. Both clinical data and standardized red-reflex lens and fundus photographs were obtained at baseline and annually. Photographs were graded by a centralized reading center for cortical and posterior subcapsular lens opacities and for AMD severity. Cataract surgery was documented at annual study visits or by history during the 6-month telephone calls. Analyses were conducted using multivariate repeated-measures regression. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Change in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) after cataract surgery compared with preoperative BCVA. RESULTS: Adjusting for age at time of surgery, gender, interval between preoperative and postoperative visits, and type and severity of cataract, the mean changes in visual acuity were as follows: eyes with mild AMD (n = 30) gained 11.2 letters (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.9-15.5), eyes with moderate AMD (n = 346) gained 11.1 letters (95% CI, 9.1-13.2), eyes with severe AMD (n = 462) gained 8.7 letters (95% CI, 6.7-10.7), eyes with noncentral geographic atrophy (n = 70) gained 8.9 letters (95% CI, 5.8-12.1), and eyes with advanced AMD (central geographic atrophy, neovascular disease, or both; n = 324) gained 6.8 letters (95% CI, 4.9-8.8). The visual acuity gain across all AMD severity groups was statistically significant from preoperative values (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Mean visual acuities improved significantly after cataract surgery across varying degrees of AMD severity.

Systems biology-based analysis implicates a novel role for vitamin D metabolism in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration.

Vitamin D has been shown to have anti-angiogenic properties and to play a protective role in several types of cancer, including breast, prostate and cutaneous melanoma. Similarly, vitamin D levels have been shown to be protective for risk of a number of conditions, including cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease, as well as numerous autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel diseases and type 1 diabetes mellitus. A study performed by Parekh et al. was the first to suggest a role for vitamin D in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and showed a correlation between reduced serum vitamin D levels and risk for early AMD. Based on this study and the protective role of vitamin D in diseases with similar pathophysiology to AMD, we examined the role of vitamin D in a family-based cohort of 481 sibling pairs. Using extremely phenotypically discordant sibling pairs, initially we evaluated the association of neovascular AMD and vitamin D/sunlight-related epidemiological factors. After controlling for established AMD risk factors, including polymorphisms of the genes encoding complement factor H (CFH) and age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2/HtrA serine peptidase (ARMS2/HTRA1), and smoking history, we found that ultraviolet irradiance was protective for the development of neovascular AMD (p = 0.001). Although evaluation of serum vitamin D levels (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]) was higher in unaffected individuals than in their affected siblings, this finding did not reach statistical significance. Based on the relationship between ultraviolet irradiance and vitamin D production, we employed a candidate gene approach for evaluating common variation in key vitamin D pathway genes (the genes encoding the vitamin D receptor [VDR]; cytochrome P450, family 27, subfamily B, polypeptide 1 [CYP27B1]; cytochrome P450, family 24, subfamily A, polypeptide 1 [CYP24A1]; and CYP27A1) in this same family-based cohort. Initial findings were then validated and replicated in the extended family cohort, an unrelated case-control cohort from central Greece and a prospective nested case-control population from the Nurse's Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Studies, which included patients with all subtypes of AMD for a total of 2,528 individuals. Single point variants in CYP24A1 (the gene encoding the catabolising enzyme of the vitamin D pathway) were demonstrated to influence AMD risk after controlling for smoking history, sex and age in all populations, both separately and, more importantly, in a meta-analysis. This is the first report demonstrating a genetic association between vitamin D metabolism and AMD risk. These findings were also supplemented with expression data from human donor eyes and human retinal cell lines. These data not only extend previous biological studies in the AMD field, but further emphasise common antecedents between several disorders with an inflammatory/immunogenic component such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and AMD.

Biologic response modifier therapy for psoriatic ocular inflammatory disease.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of biologic response modifiers (BRMs) in the treatment of patients with psoriatic ocular inflammatory disease. METHODS: The records of 8 patients diagnosed with psoriatic ocular inflammatory disease who received adalimumab or infliximab were reviewed. Main outcome measures were control of intraocular inflammation, visual acuities, and adverse effects of therapy. RESULTS: The mean patient age was 53 +/- 15 years. Three patients had psoriatic panuveitis, 3 had psoriatic scleritis, and 2 patients had psoriatic anterior uveitis. The ocular inflammatory disease was bilateral in 7 patients. Four patients received adalimumab, and 4 received infliximab. Average time of therapy was 6.1 +/- 4.7 months. Six patients were treated concurrently with methotrexate. With respect to visual acuity, 2 patients demonstrated improvement, 2 patients demonstrated deterioration, and 4 patients remained stable. Seven patients achieved remission of their ocular inflammation. CONCLUSIONS: BMRs can be a useful adjunctive therapy for psoriatic ocular inflammatory disease.