Frequent aspirin use may be associated with an increased risk of early or wet late age-related macular degeneration, with an odds ratio that increases upon frequency of consumption, a study found.

Researchers from the European Eye Study, a population-based, cross-sectional analysis including 4,691 subjects 65 years or older at seven centers from northern and southern Europe, used logistic regression to assess odds ratios for AMD in aspirin users.

Early and late AMD occurred in 36.4% and 3.3% of subjects, respectively; 41.2% of subjects reported monthly aspirin use, 7% reported at least once weekly use, and 17.3% reported daily use.

For participants who used daily, the odds ratios steadily increased with increasing severity of AMD grades: 1.26 for grade 1, 1.42 for grade 2 and 2.22 for wet late AMD.The study was limited by the unknown amount of aspirin taken, as well as the possibility that participants may have taken aspirin after experiencing visual problems.

Dr Con Moshegov says ”Aspirin has been purported to be effective in helping to reduce the risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke.The authors of this study concede that they did not look at the dosage taken by the participants however, given that there may well b e a higher risk of macular degeneration with Aspirin, the medical profession will need to examine the potential benefit vs risk ratio carefully."

< Prev		Next >