Aspirin Use May Raise Risk of Vision Loss

Aspirin is among the most widely used medications in the world, most notaby utilized in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.  Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in older people, with its neovascular (wet) form the more visually debilitating.   Gerald Liew, from the University of Sydney (Australia), and colleagues examined whether regular aspirin use (defined as once or more per week in the past year) was associated with a higher risk of developing AMD.  The team completed a prospective analysis of data from an Australian study that included four examinations during a 15-year period. Of 2,389 participants, 257 individuals (10.8%) were regular aspirin users.  After the 15-year follow-up, 63 individuals (24.5%) developed incident neovascular AMD, according to the results. Observing that: "The cumulative incidence of neovascular AMD among nonregular aspirin users was 0.8% at five years, 1.6% at 10 years, and 3.7% at 15 years; among regular aspirin users, the cumulative incidence was 1.9% at five years, 7% at 10 years and 9.3% at 15 years, respectively," the study authors observe that: “Regular aspirin use was significantly associated with an increased incidence of neovascular [age-related macular degeneration]."