In a column in North Carolina's Citizen-Times (3/24), retina and macula specialist Robert Park, MD, explains age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and its treatments.

AMD, "the leading cause of legal blindness in the Western world," is "classified into two types -- dry and wet, with 85 percent of people with the disease having the dry type, and 15 percent" having "the wet type."

• Dry AMD "affects RPE cells that feed and support the light-sensitive cells in the macula. When the RPE cells are damaged, the light-sensitive macular cells die, and" central vision gradually worsens.
• In wet AMD, however, "new blood vessels grow under the macula, disrupting" it, often leading "to rapid and permanent central blindness."

Wet AMD can be treated by the drug Lucentis [ranibizumab], but "treatment of dry" AMD "is mostly preventative," such as avoid smoking. AMD symptoms "can include blurry vision, blind spots and the appearance of crooked lines when they should appear straight."

For more information on AMD, please feel free to ask your doctor at Davis Eye Associates during your next appointment.