Australian researchers found nocturnal hypoxia may be an “under-appreciated important modifiable risk factor for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD)”.

Writing in Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology, researchers at the Centre for Eye Research Australia sought to determine any association between nocturnal hypoxia and AMD, its severity and the high-risk sub-phenotype of reticular pseudodrusen (RPD). The study included 225 participants, 76% with AMD, of which 42% had coexistent RPD.

Subjects with moderate-to-severe (defined as having an oxygen desaturation index score >15) obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) had increased odds of having nAMD (odds ratio=6.35) but this did not apply to those with early/intermediate AMD or geographic atrophy; mild OSA was not associated with differences in odds of having AMD of any severity, they said.