About GA
Impact on Patients
Visual Acuity ≠ Visual Function
Monitoring for progression can be difficult since disease progression is NOT always correlated with a decline in visual acuity, particularly with extrafoveal lesions.
To get a complete look at how geographic atrophy (GA) is impacting your patients, you can go beyond best corrected visual function (BCVA) by evaluating functional assessments.3,4
Functional Tests to Assess GA
May be used to detect abnormal visual function in patients with good BCVA4
Deficits in LLVA are associated with higher GA lesion progression rates3
Delayed dark adaptation may provide evidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) before the appearance of clinical features, such as drusen and focal pigmentary changes12
A decrease in retinal sensitivity can correlate with lesion enlargement over time3,25
GA Changes Lives
Geographic atrophy (GA) can have an impact on patients’ emotional well-being, leading to feelings of anger, frustration, isolation, fear, and depression.18,20,26 Emerging therapies may offer eye care professionals the opportunity to slow the progression of GA and help patients address some of the biggest obstacles they face in their day-to-day lives.21
Patients Lose More Than Just Vision
Reported difficulty reading for everyday tasks or leisure20
Lose confidence driving at night19
Will lose their ability to drive in
1.6 years after diagnosis16
Treatment Considerations
Treatment options exist for patients with GA secondary to AMD. Explore the clinical data about an FDA approved treatment option for your patients.
Learn more hereReferences
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- Boyer DS, Schmidt-Erfurth U, van Lookeren Campagne M, Henry EC, Brittain C. The pathophysiology of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and the complement pathway as a therapeutic target. Retina. 2017;37(5):819-835.
- Fleckenstein M, Mitchell P, Freund KB, et al. The progression of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmology. 2018;125(3):369-390.
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- Mones J, Garcia M, Biarnes M, Lakkaraju A, Ferraro L. Drusen ooze: a novel hypothesis in geographic atrophy. Ophthalmol Retina. 2017;1(6):461-473.
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- Sunness JS, Rubin GS, Applegate CA, et al. Visual function abnormalities and prognosis in eyes with age-related geographic atrophy of the macula and good visual acuity. Ophthalmology. 1997;104(10):1677-1691.
- Flaxel CJ, Adelman RA, Bailey ST, et al. Age-related macular degeneration preferred practice pattern®. Ophthalmology. 2020;127(1):P1-P65.
- Sadda SR, Guymer R, Holz FG, et al. Consensus definition for atrophy associated with age-related macular degeneration on OCT.Ophthalmology. 2018;125(4):537-548.
- Garrity ST, Sarraf D, Freund KB, Sadda SR. Multimodal imaging of nonneovascular age-related macular degeneration. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2018;59(4):AMD48-AMD64.
- Lindblad AS, Lloyd PC, Clemons TE, et al. Change in area of geographic atrophy in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study: AREDS report number 26. Arch Ophthalmol. 2009;127(9):1168-1174.
- Holz FG, Strauss EC, Schmitz-Valckenberg S, van Lookeren Campagne M. Geographic atrophy: clinical features and potential therapeutic approaches. Ophthalmology. 2014;121(5):1079-1091.
- Jaffe GJ, Westby K, Csaky KG, et al. Ophthalmology. 2021;128(4):576-586.
- IQVIA Medical Claims (Dx) Data Jan’20–Dec’21: 24 Months.
- Sayegh RG, Sacu S, Dunavolgyi R, et al. Geographic atrophy and foveal-sparing changes related to visual acuity in patients with dry age-related macular degeneration over time. Am J Ophthalmol. 2017;179:118-128.
- Chakravarthy U, Bailey CC, Johnston RL, et al. Characterizing disease burden and progression of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmology. 2018;125(6):842-849.
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- Patel PJ, Ziemssen F, Ng E, et al. Burden of illness in geographic atrophy: a study of vision-related quality of life and health care resource use. Clin Ophthalmol. 2020;14:15-28.
- Singh RP, Patel SS, Nielsen JS, Schmier JK, Rajput Y. Patient-, caregiver-, and eye care professional-reported burden of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration. Am J Ophthalm Clin Trials. 2019;2:1-6.
- Fleckenstein M, Keenan TDL, Guymer RH, et al. Age-related macular degeneration. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2021;7(31):1-25.
- Velilla S, Garcia-Medina JJ, Garcia-Layana A, et al. Smoking and age-related macular degeneration: review and update. J Ophthalmol. 2013;2013:895147.
- Heesterbeek TJ, Lores-Motta L, Hoyng CB, Lechanteur YTE, den Hollander AI. Risk factors for progression of age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2020;40(2):140-170.
- Curcio CA, Johnson M, Huang JD, Rudolf M. Apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins in retinal aging and age-related macular degeneration. J Lipid Res. 2010;51(3):451-67.
- Meleth AD, Mettu P, Agron E, et al. Changes in retinal sensitivity in geographic atrophy progression as measured by microperimetry. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2011;52(2):1119-1126.
- Sivaprasad S, Tschosik EA, Guymer RH, et al. Living with geographic atrophy: an ethnographic study. Ophthalmol Ther. 2019;8(1):115-124.
- Xu H, Chen M. Targeting the complement system for the management of retinal inflammatory and degenerative diseases. Eur J Pharmacol . 2016;787:94-104.
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- Wu J, Sun X. Complement system and age-related macular degeneration: drugs and challenges. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2019;13:2413-2425.
- Coulthard LG, Woodruff TM. Is the complement activation product C3a a proinflammatory molecule? Re-evaluating the evidence and the myth. J Immunol. 2015;194(8):3542-3548.
- Kim BJ, Mastellos DC, Li Y, Dunaief JL, Lambris JD. Targeting complement components C3 and C5 for the retina: key concepts and lingering questions. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2021;83:100936.
- Xie CB, Jane-Wit D, Pober JS. Complement membrane attack complex: new roles, mechanisms of action, and therapeutic targets. Am J Pathol. 2020;190(6):1138-1150.
- Brandstetter C, Holz FG, Krohne TU. Complement component C5a primes retinal pigment epithelial cells for inflammasome activation by lipofuscin-mediated photooxidative damage. J Biol Chem. 2015;290(52):31189-31198.
- Kumar-Singh R. The role of complement membrane attack complex in dry and wet AMD - From hypothesis to clinical trials. Exp Eye Res. 2019;184:266-277.