Irish eyes may not be smiling at AMD study results

A study conducted at the Trinity College Dublin and the Mark Cahill of the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital revealed that Irish people are more genetically predisposed to developing age-related macular degneration (AMD) than other Caucasian populations. Researchers evaluated blood samples from more than 200 patients with AMD and compared them with samples from study participants who did not have AMD to identify genetic risk factors. In addition, smokers who are Irish are four times more likely to develop AMD and 23.6 percent of Irish people were smokers as of June 2010. The discovery that Irish people are at an increased risk of developing AMD will help researchers better understand the underlying cause of macular degeneration.*