Data are limited for those over age 85. The National Eye Institute predicts that by the year 2010, the disease will be more common than the two other eye diseases that affect the older population, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma, combined. Age-related macular degeneration occurs when the macula is damaged or deteriorates in one or both eyes. About 90 percent of people who are diagnosed with macular changes have the dry form. With the dry form, the light-sensing cells in the eye break down and the tissue thins.
Vision loss is gradual and painless.
About 10 percent of people with the dry form will progress to the wet form. New blood vessels develop in the macula in an effort to supply blood and nutrients to the thinning tissue and damaged light-sensing cells. These new blood vessels are fragile and often leak blood and fluid, resulting in a greater and more rapid loss of central vision. There will be a very rapid loss of the ability to read or to recognize another person's face, to drive, to do anything that involves detailed vision straight ahead. Hemorrhaging can be stopped in only 15 to 20 percent of the cases, and only after a series of treatments, she said.