EDCC Study Group. Antioxidant status and neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Arch. Ophthalmol. 1993;111:104-9.
Content: First epidemiological study indicating that lower plasma levels of L&Z are correlated with higher risk of AMD. This paper evaluated the hypothesis that higher serum levels of micronutrients with antioxidant capabilities may be associated with a decreased risk of neovascular age-related macular degeneration by comparing serum levels of carotenoids, vitamins C and E, and selenium in 421 patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration and 615 controls.
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Seddon JM, Ajani UA, Sperduto RD, et al. Dietary carotenoids, vitamins A, C, and E, and advanced age-related macular degeneration. Eye Disease Case-Control Study Group. Jama 1994;272(18):1413-20.
Content: First epidemiological study indicating that low dietary intake levels of lutein and zeaxanthin are correlated with higher risk of AMD. This case-control study evaluated the relationships between dietary intake of carotenoids and vitamins A, C, and E and the risk of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a total of 356 subjects with AMD who were compared to 520 control subjects.
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Beatty S, Murray IJ, Henson DB, et al. Macular pigment and risk for age-related macular degeneration in subjects from a Northern European population. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2001;42(2):439-46.
Content: Epidemiological study indicating that the macular pigment is low in fellow eye if the other eye has AMD. Age and advanced disease in the fellow eye are the two most important risk factors for AMD. This paper investigated the relationship between these variables and the optical density of macular pigment in 46 subjects ranging in age from 21 to 81 years with healthy maculae and in 9 healthy eyes known to be at high-risk of AMD because of advanced disease in the fellow eye. The two most important risk factors for AMD were associated with a relative absence of MP.
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Bone RA, Landrum JT, Mayne ST, et al. Macular pigment in donor eyes with and without AMD: a case-control study. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2001;42(1):235-42.
Content: Epidemiological study in donor eyes that chemically detectable lutein and zeaxanthin is low in eyes with AMD. This paper evaluated whether there is an association between the density of macular pigment in the human retina and the risk of age-related macular degeneration in retinas from 56 donors with AMD and 56 controls. L and Z levels in the retina were less for the AMD donors than for the controls.
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Gruber M, Chappell R, Millen A, et al. Correlates of serum lutein + zeaxanthin: findings from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. J. Nutr. 2004;134(9):2387-94.
Content: Epidemiological study with lutein and zeaxanthin. This paper investigated the determinants of plasma levels of lutein + zeaxanthin in terms of diet, lifestyle, and physiological determinants in 7059 participants of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994). A logistic regression could explain 24% of the variation present in plasma lutein + zeaxanthin for this sample.
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Gale CR, Hall NF, Phillips DIW, Martyn CN. Lutein and Zeaxanthin Status and Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2003;44(6):2461-5.
Content: First epidemiological study that specifically has related low plasma zeaxanthin levels to an increase risk for AMD in 380 men and women, aged 66 to 75 years, from Sheffield, United Kingdom. Compared with those subjects whose plasma concentrations of zeaxanthin were in the highest third of the distribution, people whose plasma concentration was in the lowest third had an odds ratio for risk of age-related macular degeneration of 2.0 (95% CI 1.0-4.1).
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