Stargardt’ Disease: symptoms, causes, prevention and treatment
What is it?
Itis a condition, during which the macula is affected. Macula is a small part of retina at the back of the eye and is sensitive to light. When person suffers from Stargardt’ Disease, his central vision is deteriorated. It causes problems with detailed direct vision. When you have this kind of macular dystrophy, you do not encounter problems with peripheral vision.
In order to understand the process you should understand how macula works. In macula, which is in the in the very center of retina, the incoming rays of light are concentrated. Here the cone cells are focused. Macula is in charge of :
- Front sight (one can see what is in front of him);
- Detailed sight (one requires it during reading, for instance, or writing);
- Color differentiating.
The other names of it are: Stargardt macular dystrophy, fundus flavimaculatus.
Who is affected by it?
The disorder is also named a juvenile macular dystrophy because it often occurs when the patient is a teenager. Mainly people between 10-20 years old suffer from it. But it can happen later too.
Symptoms
The patient has the following symptoms that became the hallmark of the condition:
- Distorted sight
- Blurred sight
- Wrong color perception
- Blank patch in the center (when patient suffers from it for a long time)
The causes of it
This is inherited and occurs because of mistakes in the genes. The gene that is charge of the condition has been identified not long ago.
When the person is diagnosed with this conditionthat means that he received 2 defective copies of a gene from parents. The parents are the carriers of a faulty gene. When there is only 1 faulty copy, then the second one compensates it, but when both of them are faulty then the child acquires the condition . At this the parents are not diagnosed with disorder. Therefore there can be no history of the disorder in the family.
In case both parents are the carriers of the mutated and the normal gene, the chances are that the offspring will inherit the condition. The chances are estimated 25% in this case. All the rest become the carriers of recessive gene and that means that their children enter the risk group.
How is it diagnosed
In order to diagnose Stargardt’ disease the following tests are performed:
- Electroretinography
- Fluorescein angiography
- Electro-oculography.
Prevention of Stargardt’ Disease
In accordance with research of some experts the opinion evolved that being exposed to bright rays can trigger the damage of retina. Some advise to wear glasses that protect the person from UV rays and exclude the possibility of bigger damage.
Treatment using stem cells in UCTC
There is no cure from the Stargardt’ disease. Active research is conducted in stem cell area to help people cope with the problem.
Clinic of Professor Smikodub also works over this kind of treatment to help patients recover from this condition . Stem cell therapy was designed to regenerate photoreceptors that are located in the retina. Stargardt’ disease damages them and the task of regeneration is set to achieve the success.
The problem is very acute because loss of a sight affects the person’s life and makes him unable to live normally. With assistance of stem cell therapy in the clinic the condition of the patient can be considerably enhanced. Our patients return to their ordinary routine some time after injections of these cells. They are thankful for opportunity to return their life back using regenerative medicine!