Purpose:
To determine whether there is an association between reticular macular disease (RMD), aka reticular pseudodrusen, and choroidal thickness in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).
Methods:
We randomly selected 15 patients with AMD (8 with RMD, 7 without RMD). Of those eyes without advanced AMD, we analyzed SD-OCT scans of 10 eyes of 10 age-matched subjects (5 RMD eyes, 5 non- RMD eyes). A total of 55 choroidal thickness measurements were taken for each study eye (5 scans per eye, 11 fixed point measurements, ~550um apart per scan). For most eyes, the five scans included two superior to the fovea, one foveal, and two inferior to the fovea.
Results:
Of the 10 subjects, 9 were female. Mean age was 81±3 years in the RMD group, and 80±7 years in the non-RMD group. The overall mean choroidal thickness in eyes with RMD was significantly less than in eyes without RMD. Similarly, significant differences were found with superior and foveal measurements; inferior measurements trended towards significance (Table 1).
Conclusions:
There appears to be a significant morphological association between RMD and choroidal thinning when compared with non-RMD eyes. This association was most notable on superior choroidal thickness measurements, where the frequency of RMD lesions is known from many studies to be highest, but was still present on foveal measurements. This is consistent with the hypothesis that RMD is a choroidal vascular occlusive disease and warrants further investigation.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • imaging/image analysis: clinical • retina