There are two types of age-related macular degeneration – wet and dry. Wet macular degeneration is the more severe kind and is characterized by swelling caused by leaking blood vessels that affect the macula, which is the center of the retina. It’s not known what causes this condition, but it almost always develops in people who have had the dry form of macular degeneration, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Currently, treatments for this eye disease are quite invasive and involve a series of injections into the eye, as frequent as every four weeks, for the remainder of the patients life. But this new procedure, called iRay, only involves a patient sitting in front of the machine while low-energy X-rays are “beamed” back into the back of their eye. As a result the “beams” close the blood vessels that cause loss of the vision. It’s an in-office procedure that last about 15 to 20 minutes.
iRay, which is a product of the U.S. firm Oraya Therapeutics, is currently being tested at London’s King College Hospital.
“This is an exciting new technology that targets one of the most common causes of blindness in the U.K.,” Dr. Tim Jackson, who is leading the trial, said. “If the initial results are borne out in these important larger studies then a majority of patients will have something to look forward to – an easily administered, one-off treatment that maintains or improves vision, and fewer injections into their eye.”
In the U.S., the device has not yet received FDA approval. Stay tuned and check back for more information regarding this new treatment and experiment.
To learn more about AMD please join us for our Annual Educational Symposium on Saturday, March 26th, 2011 at the Tampa Westshore Marriott in Tampa, Fl. Log onto our website to learn more about this event.To register or for more information about the March 26th Educational Conference, please contact Ms. Rosa Seminario at: rseminario@maculardegenera
References:http://www.foxnews.com/hea
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