Associations between systemic medications and development of wet age-related macular degeneration

To examine whether systemic medications are associated with the subsequent development of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

A retrospective study of 259 562 individuals based on registry data, from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2017. End-point event was the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 diagnosis for wet AMD. Association between use of systemic medication covering 85 generic drugs categorized according to Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) codes and the incidence of wet AMD was evaluated using multivariate Poisson regression model (adjusted for age, sex, diabetes, cancer and socioeconomic group) and nested case-control design.

The mean length of follow-up was 9.84 years. The number of cases with wet AMD was 2947 and incidence rate was 1.15 per 1000 person-years. After adjustment, we observed an increased risk for the development of wet AMD for patients exposed to amlodipine (IRR 1.33, 95% CI 1.16-1.53), or felodipine (1.24, 95% CI 1.02-1.50). Similarly, an increased risk of wet AMD was associated with the use of bicalutamide (2.14, 95% CI 1.14-4.02), estradiol (1.20, 95% CI 1.03-1.40) and atorvastatin (1.22, 95% CI 1.05-1.43). Of note, digoxin (0.72, 95% CI 0.57-0.91), and ramipril (0.80, 95% CI 0.65-0.99) users had a lower incidence of wet AMD.

Our findings suggest that the use of second-generation calcium channel blockers could be associated with an increased risk for wet AMD development. Of note, the incidence of wet AMD seemed to be lower in patients using ramipril and digoxin. More studies are needed to elucidate the associations further.