Early AMD linked to increased risk of coronary heart disease

Researchers evaluated data from the Cardiovascular Health Study to examine associations between AMD and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke. Subjects with early AMD had a higher cumulative incidence of CHD over a seven-year period than those without early AMD (25.8 percent vs. 18.9 percent; P = 0.001). However, late AMD was not associated with incident CHD, and neither early nor late AMD was associated with incident stroke.

The results provide further support that AMD and cardiovascular disease may share some risk factors-smoking, high blood pressure, inflammatory indicators such as C-reactive protein, genetic variants such as complement factor H-and disease mechanisms.