Blood test ‘could stop the elderly going blind’

A BLOOD test could save the sight of older people by detecting a common eye disease before symptoms even emerge.

More than 600,000 in the UK have age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The disease is the leading cause of blindness in British people aged 50 or over.

By the time many notice any problems – such as dark spots in their vision – much of the damage has already been done.

But US researchers say a blood test could detect AMD earlier and may lead to new treatment options. In the study, published yesterday in the journal Opthomalolgy, researchers took blood samples from 90 people with different stages of AMD and 30 who were free of the disease to check for common markers in their blood.

The researchers found 87 types of molecules that were present at significantly different levels in the blood of those with AMD.

Co-author Dr Deeba Husain of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary said: ‘We believe this work will help launch the era of personalised medicine in treatment of AMD.’