Association of macular pigment optical density with risk factors for wet age-related macular degeneration in the Indian population

Purpose: To investigate macular pigment optical density (MPOD) in patients with and without wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to elucidate the association between MPOD and the risk factors for AMD in an Indian population. Methods: Thirty-three subjects with wet AMD and 29 controls above 50 years old underwent MPOD measurement with the 'Macular Densitometer'. The subjects were also tested for their smoking history, lifetime ultraviolet (UV) exposure, dietary intake of carotenoids, and body mass index (BMI). Results: Smokers had a higher risk for AMD than the non-smokers (P=0.032) and a lower MPOD level than non-smokers (mean (95% CI)) (0.16 (0.09-0.23) vs 0.28 (0.22-0.34), adjusted P=0.026). Subjects with lowest UV exposure had higher MPOD than those with the highest (0.46 (0.38-0.54) vs 0.17 (0.01-0.33), P=0.01). MPOD was significantly lower among those with the lowest quartile of dietary intake of carotenoids (0.14 (0.08-0.21) vs 0.25 (0.13-0.36), P=0.012). Smoking, obesity, and UV index showed an inverse association with the MPOD. Low MPOD, smoking, and UV exposure had 5.11 (1.73-15.08), 3.54 (1.08-11.57), and 5.24 (1.06-25.96) odds for AMD, respectively, whereas higher dietary intake of carotenoids showed a protective effect for AMD. Conclusion: We found an inverse association between wet AMD and MPOD. Among the established risk factors of wet AMD, we found an inverse association of smoking, UV index, and obesity with MPOD, whereas a positive association was found between dietary intake of carotenoids and MPOD.