One of the most common forms of inherited macular degeneration is Stargardt’s disease. Stargardt’s disease is rare and incurable.
This disease is considered to be autosomatory, meaning for an off-spring to pick up this disease, the defective gene has to exist in both the parents.
Stargardt’s Disease is Rare and Incurable: Stargardt’s disease is known to affect approximately one child out of 10,000.
- This disease usually tends to develop during the late childhood and in some cases can also lead to blindness.
- This disease is very much similar to age related macular degeneration and is also considered a very severe form of macular degeneration.
- This disease is also known to be the largest cause of retinal pigmentosa which is again a severe form of macular degeneration.
- Usually Stargardt’s disease develops in between the ages of 7-12 and gets severe before the individual reaches twenty.
Symptoms of Stargardt’s disease: The first symptom of Stargardt’s disease is quiet easily noticeable.
- The individual begins to lose his central vision owing to a foveal damage.
- Stargardt’s disease is known to be progressive over a person’s life and no signs of visual acuity problems can be observed in the initial stages.
- Also, people suffering from this disease can have problems with reading and seeing in dimly lit places.
- Other problems like blurred and distorted vision are also common among sufferers of Stargardt’s disease.
- Not only between the ages of 7 and 12 but a few people are even known to pick up central vision problems in adulthood due to this disease.
- Loss of colour vision can also be observed in the alter stages of this disease.
The Problems for Detecting Stargardt’s disease: The reason for Stargardt’s disease being undetectable at a very early stage is due to the lack of diagnosing the defective genes in the parents. Not until after the child is born with this defect it can be noticed. Also, there is always a problem of misdiagnosis during it’s onset.
Treatment: As of now, there exists no effective way to treat Stargardt’s disease.
- Research is ongoing and doctors suggests that gene therapy could be a possible solution.
- Avoiding bright lights and wearing UV glasses could slow down the progress of the disease.
Stargardt’s disease is rare and incurable. But, low vision aids can help slowing the progress of this disease in both children and adults.
