Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose:To investigate whether there is an association between baseline plasma C–reactive protein (CRP) levels, a marker of systemic inflammation, and incident Aging Macular Disease (AMD). Methods: In the prospective population–based Rotterdam Study on Caucasians a total of 4859 participants, aged 55 years and older, were at baseline free of AMD and also participated in the follow–up examination. Plasma CRP levels were analysed in baseline non–fasting blood specimens. Data for all persons who participated in at least one of the three follow–up examinations were included in these analyses. Grading of AMD was assessed according to the International Classification and Grading System and subsequently divided in five mutually exclusive classes with increasing predictive power for late AMD. We used multivariate logistic regression analysis to compute Odds Ratios (ORs) with corresponding 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) for incident AMD associated with logarithmically transformed CRP as a continuous variable. Results: Of 4859 persons at risk, 636 participants were diagnosed with incident class 2, 3 and 4 AMD. After adjusting for age, gender and follow–up time we found a small significant association between log CRP levels and incident AMD (OR=1,12 ; 95% CI 1,02 ; 1,23). Conclusions: There is a possible small association between baseline CRP and incident AMD in this large population–based cohort study.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • inflammation • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: risk factor assessment