Clinical and Demographic Characteristics of the Study Population.

*AMD patients were categorized into mutually exclusive groups: All subjects classified as “early AMD” (n = 9) had extensive intermediate and/or large drusen in at least one eye and all qualified as category III of the Age-Related Eye Disease Study group. Patients with GA in both eyes or GA in one eye in the absence of CNV in the fellow eye were classified as “GA” (n = 25). Nineteen of these had subfoveal GA in at least one eye; the remaining six patients exclusively showed extrafoveal GA. If a CNV due to AMD was present in at least one eye, patients were classified as “CNV” (n = 78). Subjects with changes such as many hard drusen and/or pigmentary alterations in both eyes were excluded as these changes may refer to normal aging processes not necessarily linked to AMD. ** Difference between cases and controls, p = 0.02; *** p<0.001.