Abstract
Purpose: :
The purpose of these analyses were to track macular thickness in patients with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who were considered high risk for progression to the wet form of the disease (wet AMD in fellow eye).
Methods: :
Stratus OCT III (Carl Zeiss, Inc., Thornwood, NY) fast macular thickness maps were obtained every 3 months for a period of 2 years, or until the time of progression to wet AMD. Thickness maps were examined for interpretation error and for foveal decentration. If either existed scans were not included in analysis. Thicknesses are presented as mean ± standard deveation. Means between time points were compared using paired t-tests and statistical significance was defined as ≤0.05.
Results: :
In the first 36 patients completing the study, both foveal thickness and macular volume were significantly decreased by 30.4 ± 69.3 um (p=0.04) and 0.83 ± 2.05 mL, respectively, at 2 years. Progressive changes in individual OCT macular regions were also observed over the 24 months and will be discussed.
Conclusions: :
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first OCT quantification of retinal thickness changes in dry AMD. Understanding these changes could lead to a better understanding of the dry AMD process.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: natural history