Types Of Amd - Age Related Macular Degeneration Amd: The Aging Eye Preventing And Treating Eye Disease
Types of AMD
The disease occurs in two main forms: dry and wet. While this discussion focuses on the age-related forms, younger people may develop other kinds of macular degeneration, some inherited and some acquired.
Dry AMD. The vast majority (90%) of people with AMD have the dry or atrophic type, which involves a breakdown or thinning of retinal tissue and decay of photoreceptor (light-sensitive) cells in the macular area of the retina. Dry AMD may affect only one eye at first, causing gradual distortion of the visual field and blurring of the central sight. It is common for the second eye eventually to fall victim as well. (The same is true for cataract and glaucoma.) In some cases, dry AMD can lead to severe vision loss.
Wet AMD. This variation is less common but more severe. It results when abnormal blood vessels develop in the choroid layer of the eye and extend like tentacles under and into the retina, toward the macula (see Figure 11). These new vessels are prone to leaking fluid and blood, which injure tissue and photoreceptor cells. The outcome is internal scarring and marked loss of vision, usually in the center of the macula. Wet AMD progresses faster than the dry form.
| Last updated: | June 19, 2007 |
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Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.
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