A study presented at ARVO last week examined more than 2.6 million patients with dry AMD in at least one eye from the AAO IRIS Registry.
Observed patient characteristics included age, sex, race, geographic region, and smoking status; dry and wet AMD stage; and conversion time from dry to wet AMD.
What did they find?
White female smokers had a higher risk of conversion from dry AMD to wet AMD.
Also, patients who had one eye with wet AMD and one eye with dry AMD and patients with unilateral dry AMD were more likely to convert to wet AMD than patients with bilateral dry AMD.
How likely was someone with dry AMD to convert to wet AMD?
The more advanced the stage of dry AMD, the more likely the conversion to wet AMD. Conversion rates were 2% for patients with early dry AMD, 6.1% for intermediate dry AMD, and 6.7% for advanced dry AMD.