Aociation of neovacular age-related macular degeneration and hyperhomocyteinemia

Purpoe To ae the relationhip between plama homocyteine level and exudative neovacular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Deign Cro-ectional tudy. Method A propective comparative cro-ectional tudy wa conducted in outpatient ophthalmology clinic in a univerity-affiliated medical intitution. The cohort conited of 59 patient (25 male, 34 female) with a mean age of 78 year (tandard deviation [D] = 8.4) with neovacular AMD who were candidate for photodynamic treatment. Patient were compared for plama homocyteine level with 58 patient who had dry AMD (24 male, 34 female) with a mean age of 76.3 year (D = 8.4) and with a control group of 56 age-matched ubject (27 male, 29 female), with a mean age of 77.3 year (D = 8.2). A 3-ml venou blood ample wa obtained from each participant after an 8-hour fat. Level of plama homocyteine were meaured by high performance liquid chromatography. The main outcome meaure wa hyperhomocyteinemia, defined a a plama homocyteine level above 15 μmol/l. Reult Homocyteine level were higher by 27.9% in the neovacular AMD than in the dry AMD group, and by 21.9% than in the control group (P < .02). Hyperhomocyteinemia wa found in 44.1% of the tudy group, in 22.4% of the dry AMD group, and in 21.4% of the control group (P = .011). Concluion Thi tudy ugget an aociation between an elevated plama level of homocyteine and exudative neovacular AMD but not dry AMD.