Eye test could spot if you’re going blind three years early

AN INNOVATIVE eye test could pick up a condition three years before it causes blindness.

Age-related macular degeneration, the UK’s leading cause of blindness, affects almost one in 40 of those aged over 50. The ‘wet’ form of the disease, in which leaky blood vessels grow underneath the retina, is what destroys vision.

But scientists have found a way to detect early signs, allowing patients to get rapid treatment and save their sight.

The key is an injection of a fluorescent dye which sticks to the ‘stressed’ cells that form the dangerous blood vessels.

These cells then glow white when an optician takes a picture of an eye. In early trials with 19 participants at risk of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the eye test picked up all seven of those who went on to develop it.

Lead author Professor Francesca Cordeiro, from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London, said: ‘Often the first time that people with wet AMD seek help is when they notice visual disturbances, which mean straight lines appear distorted and look wavy in the centre, for example.

‘Unfortunately, unless they are very quickly treated after this happens, it is often too late to prevent loss of vision.’

The professor, whose study was published in the journal Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, added: ‘If this can be picked up as early as three years before it happens, people can have treatment to reverse the problem in their eye.’

The breakthrough is initially useful for older people with AMD in one eye, to monitor the other eye.

But researchers hope it could be used to screen any elderly at risk.

The dye technique has also been used to detect glaucoma and is now being tested on those with dementia, as brain changes often extend into the eye.