Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate the retinal sensitivity of the fellow eye of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
Methods: :
Patients who had neovascular AMD in one eye were invited to take part in the study. To be included, the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of the fellow eye (study eye) were 60 letters or better as measured with ETDRS chart. Microperimetry and fixation analysis were carried with Nidek MP1, Color Photography were carried out with Topcon fundus camera, Infrared Imaging, Autofluorescein imaging and Optical Coherence Topography were carried out with Heidelberg Spectralis. The amount of drusen on the color photograph was measured by the RIALAB drusen load software. The fixation stability was calculated and expressed by the bivariate contour ellipse area (BCEA). Student t-test was used to analyse the data.
Results: :
A total of 54 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 75.46 (SD 6.23) years and the mean BCVA was 76.5 (SD 7.08) letters. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on the amount of drusen identified by the drusen load software. A value of 3000 units was used as the cut off point. There were 27 patients in each group. The mean age were 76.0 and 75.0 years (p=0.56) in the less drusen load (LD) group and in the high drusen load (HD) group respectively, the mean BCVA were 76.8 and 76.3 letters (p=0.78) in the LD and HD respectively, the mean BCEA were 862 and 1259 (p=0.17) in the LD and HD respectively, and mean retinal sensitivity score were 10.48 and 8.05 (p=0.04) in the LD and HD respectively.
Conclusions: :
In the fellow eye of patients with neovascular AMD, increasing drusen load is significantly associated with reduction of retinal sensitivity and a trend in less stable fixation despite similar BCVA. It is unclear whether using a composite score of retinal sensitivity, fixation stability and drusen load can predict the onset of choroidal neovascularisation.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • retina