About 1 in 7 Chinese people over 50 years old are patients with age-related macular degeneration, and if they do not receive timely and standardized treatment, 85.1% of patients will have their vision reduced to legal blindness (note: vision less than 0.1) within 2 years.” Prof. Dai Hong of the Ophthalmology Department of Beijing Hospital, Ministry of Health, mentioned at the press conference on July 18 for the launch of the Demonstration Center for Eye Fundus Disease Treatment. The macula is the most acute and critical part of vision on the retina, which mainly plays the role of fine vision, distinguishing colors, reading books, newspapers, TV, seeing distant objects, etc. When the macular area has pathological changes, the person’s central vision will be severely reduced, because once the retinal cells in the macular area are damaged, they cannot be repaired and the vision is permanently damaged. One of the factors that cause macular degeneration is age-related lesions, commonly known as age-related macular degeneration. Age-related macular degeneration occurs most often over the age of 45, and the older the age, the higher the incidence. It is also because of this that age-related macular degeneration is often mistaken for the normal aging process. “In China’s middle-aged and elderly population, there is a serious lack of awareness of age-related macular degeneration, and there are numerous cases of non-treatment and irregular treatment, and even hope in Chinese medicine and “partial prescriptions”, which delay the best time for treatment and make patients suffer from irrecoverable vision loss. “, Professor Dai Hong compared the grim status of high incidence and low awareness of macular degeneration. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is divided into two types, dry and wet. dry AMD, uncontrolled, will develop into a serious type, namely wet AMD, also known as exudative AMD. wet AMD mostly causes serious visual impairment, accounting for 90% of the serious visual impairment caused by AMD. Since the 1970s, researchers have explored the following treatment methods: laser therapy, surgery, transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (Anti-VEGF). Professor Sun Xiaodong from Shanghai First People’s Hospital introduced at the conference that VEGF-A, a member of the vascular endothelial growth factor family, is a major pathogenic factor in vascular diseases of the fundus, and the introduction of anti-VEGF drug razumab has brought a breakthrough in the treatment of wet AMD. Anti-VEGF has been recommended as the first-line treatment option for wet AMD (wAMD) by several international clinical guidelines. However, anti-VEGF drugs are vitreous cavity injectable drugs, which have more stringent requirements on the operator’s qualification and operational procedures. At present, China lacks a unified standard operating procedure and clinical guidelines to guide ophthalmologists at all levels to standardize the treatment of wet AMD (wAMD). In response to this problem, the Center of Excellence for the Treatment of Endophthalmitis (COE) was established. Professor Wang Ningli of Beijing Tongren Hospital said, under the support and promotion of Novartis, the first demonstration centers have been established in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, five key hospitals in China’s ophthalmology center, the intention is to train clinicians at all levels of wet AMD (wAMD) clinical treatment guidelines and standardized vitreous cavity injection standard procedures, optimize the in-hospital treatment process, maximize hospital capacity and patient benefits. Recommended reading: Who are the people at risk for AMD? A large number of studies have shown that the occurrence of AMD is related to age, genetics, environmental factors such as long-term exposure to ultraviolet light, environmental pollution, smoking, and declining blood antioxidant levels, etc. People over 50 years old, those with a history of diabetes, hypertension and smoking, or those who work outdoors for a long time are at high risk for AMD, and studies have shown that women are more likely to develop the disease than men. How to detect early and diagnose age-related macular degeneration in time? Symptoms of macular degeneration: decreased contrast sensitivity, dark spots, distortion of vision, decreased reading ability, decreased color vision, etc. However, not all patients will have these symptoms, and symptoms are usually overlooked in the early stages of the disease or when the disease develops in one eye. Experts recommend that annual fundus exams are essential for people over the age of 55. Diagnosing AMD is actually quite simple. First, older people can start with a quick self-examination using the Amsler table, which consists of a black and white square with a black dot in the middle of the square. If there is a problem with the macular area, stare at the black dot and the lines may bend. If the table you see is dark, black, and the straight line becomes curved, it may indicate that the function of the macula is impaired, and you should go to the hospital for further examination in time. The steps for diagnosis and evaluation of age-related macular degeneration are as follows: Visual acuity examination Amslers table (Amslers) examination Fundoscopy and bio-slit lamp stereoscopy Optical coherence tomography (OCT) Fluorescein fundus angiography and indocyanine green angiography (FFA & ICGA)