Breaking News About Treatment of World's Leading Cause of Adult Blindness to be Published Next Week
31/10/2007 15:54
PR Newswire
BRUSSELS, October 31 /PRNewswire/ -- First study to investigate the protective effect of a lipid-lowering
agent on diabetic eye disease to be published on-line in Lancet, Tuesday, 6th
November 2007
Diabetic eye disease (called diabetic retinopathy) is the leading cause
of vision loss in adults - affecting about 25 million people worldwide. It
occurs when diabetes affects the blood vessels at the back of the eye
damaging the retina and restricting blood flow. This destructive process
occurs in about 74 per cent of people who have diabetes for 10 years or more.
Currently, the only widely used treatment for this condition is laser
therapy. However, laser treatment often reduces peripheral vision as well as
causing other side effects. Nor does it restore sight.
Important new results to be published in Lancet.
Now researchers in Australia, New Zealand and Finland have investigated
the effects of a widely available lipid-lowering agent, fenofibrate, on the
use of laser therapy in more than 9000 men and women with diabetes.
The Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) Trial
is the largest study of a lipid-lowering agent ever conducted in adult
diabetics.
The results of an analysis of the effects of fenofibrate on diabetic
retinopathy and a sub-study of its effects on the progression of diabetic
retinopathy in more than 1000 patients will be published on-line in the
Lancet. Here is how you can get the news as it breaks:
For a copy of the press release and details of Webcast, go and register
on: http://www.fieldstudy.info/reg2 on November 7th
For more information contact: Solvay pharmaceuticals contact, Neil E. Hirsch Manager, U.S. Corporate Communications, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mobile: +1-678-557-2952, E-mail: neil.hirsch@solvay.com; Solvay pharmaceuticals B.V., Pharmacom, Puck Bossert, +31-29-44-77-469, E-mail: puck.bossert@solvay.com