Macular pigment denity and aging, aeed in the normal elderly and thoe with cataract and age-related macular degeneration

Purpoe Increaing evidence ha linked retinal lutein and zeaxanthin (termed macular pigment, MP) to the rik of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Currently, however, tudie differ regarding the quetion of whether MP decline with age or age ha an effect in patient population being aeed. Thi tudy aeed MP acro the lifepan with an emphai on aeing MP in a cro-ection of elderly including thoe with lenticular or age-related macular degeneration, or both. Deign Propective, obervational, cro-ectional tudy. Method etting:Intitution. tudy population:Cro-ectional tudy of normal, cataractou, and AMD ubject teted in Indianapoli, Indiana, including 390 ubject, 22 with cataract and 59 with age-related macular degeneration. obervational procedure: MP denity wa meaured with a one-degree diameter tet field at 460 nm uing a pychophyical method baed on heterochromatic flicker photometry. main outcome meaure: MP optical denity. Reult MP doe not appear to change a a function of age (r = +.04) when examining ubject acro the lifepan (from 18–88 year). There wa a light tendency (lope = −.0027, r = −.11) for MP to decline when only the elderly ubject were conidered, but thi trend wa not ignificant (P < .12) for any of the group conidered (normal, cataractou, or AMD). Concluion MP doe not change ignificantly with age, even when elderly ubject with cataract and AMD are conidered. Uing heterochromic flicker photometry, elderly ubject diplay a full range of MP denity that i imilar to young ubject.