Purpose:
To assess associations between the stages of age related macular degeneration (AMD) and serum levels of antioxidant vitamins (vitamin A, C and E).
Methods:
Coloured fundus photographs of the macula were used to place participants (n= 53) into one of five groups (grades I through V) based on the frequency and severity of lesions associated with AMD. Participants with fewer than 15 small drusen (grade 1) served as the control group (n= 31). Serum antioxidant vitamin levels were measured by HPLC (High Performance Liquid Cromotography) method.
Results:
Serum vitamin E levels correlated significantly with serum cholesterol (r=0,22, p=0,04) and vitamin C levels with age (r=0,26, p=0,01) therefore all of the following serum levels of vitamin E and C were adjusted for cholesterol and age correspondingly. The distribution of Vitamin A, E, C levels are shown in Table 1. The difference between AMD and control group was not statistically significant for vitamin A (p=0,932), vitamin E (p=0,330) and vitamin C (p=0,797) levels. There were no significant differences between subgroups of AMD for vitamin A (p=0,881) and vitamin E (p=0,293) but there was a contradictory increase of vitamin C levels (p=0,044) with increasing levels of the disease.
Conclusions:
We found no relation between AMD and serum levels of vitamin A, E and C.Table 1. The serum levels of Vitamin A, E and C
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • antioxidants • retina