User login
Hormone therapy with conjugated equine estrogen, with or without progestin, does not appear to reduce the risk of early-stage age-related macular degeneration in older women.
The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Sight Exam study was designed to assess the association between hormone therapy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in women at least 65 years of age. A total of 4,262 women were recruited from the WHI randomized clinical trials of hormone therapy, in which they had been randomized an average of 5 years earlier to receive conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) with or without progestin, or placebo. Two previous studies had shown a reduction in risk of AMD of 30%–40% with hormone therapy.
For the current study, the women underwent fundus photography and the images were graded for AMD severity based on a six-level scale. The primary outcome of the WHI Sight Exam was any AMD.
After adjustment for confounding factors, CEE with or without progestin had no effect on the overall incidence of early AMD. Overall, 21.0% of women in the study had any AMD, with the incidence ranging from 14.7% in women aged 65–69 years to 29.8% in women aged 75 or older. Only 1.1% of women had evidence of late AMD (Arch. Ophthalmol. 2006;124:988–92).
To minimize the effect of preexisting AMD, study investigator Dr. Mary N. Haan, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her associates excluded women who had been diagnosed with AMD before the WHI randomization. However, the investigators could not be completely certain which women had disease at randomization and which developed AMD after randomization. Moreover, they were not able to evaluate the women with a longer follow-up because the WHI trials were discontinued early.
Women taking CEE and progestin were 17% less likely than those taking placebo to have soft drusen, which has been associated with a risk of developing late-stage AMD and visual impairment.
“If this treatment does reduce the development of soft drusen, it could be beneficial for prevention of later-stage disease,” the researchers noted. But they also concluded that hormone treatment “does not influence the occurrence of early AMD.”
Hormone therapy with conjugated equine estrogen, with or without progestin, does not appear to reduce the risk of early-stage age-related macular degeneration in older women.
The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Sight Exam study was designed to assess the association between hormone therapy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in women at least 65 years of age. A total of 4,262 women were recruited from the WHI randomized clinical trials of hormone therapy, in which they had been randomized an average of 5 years earlier to receive conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) with or without progestin, or placebo. Two previous studies had shown a reduction in risk of AMD of 30%–40% with hormone therapy.
For the current study, the women underwent fundus photography and the images were graded for AMD severity based on a six-level scale. The primary outcome of the WHI Sight Exam was any AMD.
After adjustment for confounding factors, CEE with or without progestin had no effect on the overall incidence of early AMD. Overall, 21.0% of women in the study had any AMD, with the incidence ranging from 14.7% in women aged 65–69 years to 29.8% in women aged 75 or older. Only 1.1% of women had evidence of late AMD (Arch. Ophthalmol. 2006;124:988–92).
To minimize the effect of preexisting AMD, study investigator Dr. Mary N. Haan, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her associates excluded women who had been diagnosed with AMD before the WHI randomization. However, the investigators could not be completely certain which women had disease at randomization and which developed AMD after randomization. Moreover, they were not able to evaluate the women with a longer follow-up because the WHI trials were discontinued early.
Women taking CEE and progestin were 17% less likely than those taking placebo to have soft drusen, which has been associated with a risk of developing late-stage AMD and visual impairment.
“If this treatment does reduce the development of soft drusen, it could be beneficial for prevention of later-stage disease,” the researchers noted. But they also concluded that hormone treatment “does not influence the occurrence of early AMD.”
Hormone therapy with conjugated equine estrogen, with or without progestin, does not appear to reduce the risk of early-stage age-related macular degeneration in older women.
The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Sight Exam study was designed to assess the association between hormone therapy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in women at least 65 years of age. A total of 4,262 women were recruited from the WHI randomized clinical trials of hormone therapy, in which they had been randomized an average of 5 years earlier to receive conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) with or without progestin, or placebo. Two previous studies had shown a reduction in risk of AMD of 30%–40% with hormone therapy.
For the current study, the women underwent fundus photography and the images were graded for AMD severity based on a six-level scale. The primary outcome of the WHI Sight Exam was any AMD.
After adjustment for confounding factors, CEE with or without progestin had no effect on the overall incidence of early AMD. Overall, 21.0% of women in the study had any AMD, with the incidence ranging from 14.7% in women aged 65–69 years to 29.8% in women aged 75 or older. Only 1.1% of women had evidence of late AMD (Arch. Ophthalmol. 2006;124:988–92).
To minimize the effect of preexisting AMD, study investigator Dr. Mary N. Haan, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her associates excluded women who had been diagnosed with AMD before the WHI randomization. However, the investigators could not be completely certain which women had disease at randomization and which developed AMD after randomization. Moreover, they were not able to evaluate the women with a longer follow-up because the WHI trials were discontinued early.
Women taking CEE and progestin were 17% less likely than those taking placebo to have soft drusen, which has been associated with a risk of developing late-stage AMD and visual impairment.
“If this treatment does reduce the development of soft drusen, it could be beneficial for prevention of later-stage disease,” the researchers noted. But they also concluded that hormone treatment “does not influence the occurrence of early AMD.”