Speaker: Geographic atrophy, AMD both parts of same disease process

MIAMI — Geographic atrophy is part of the overall age-related macular degeneration disease process and was seen in more than half of eyes with wet AMD in one study, a speaker said here. “It’s not a different disease — it’s part of the disease,” Jason S. Slakter, MD, said at the Angiogenesis, Exudation, and Degeneration 2014 meeting. “We all know that CNV develops in patients with dry AMD — we’ve known that for years — but everyone is kind of shocked that we might get geographic atrophy in patients with CNV, although we probably shouldn’t have been surprised. In the past we just couldn’t see it.”