Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of vitreomacular interface abnormalities in eyes with the exudative form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), as compared to eyes with the dry form of AMD.
Methods:
The study included 75 consecutive patients (50 women and 25 men; mean age, 79.4 years; range, 55 to 92 years) with exudative AMD in at least one eye, diagnosed by fluorescein angiography. The vitreomacular interface was evaluated by means of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) (SOCT Copernicus, Optopol Technology SA). Comparison with the fellow eye was performed.
Results:
Exudative AMD was bilateral in 24/75 patients and unilateral in 51/75 patients, the latter presenting the dry form of AMD in the fellow eyes. Posterior vitreomacular adhesion and/or epiretinal membrane were detected in 62/99 eyes with exudative AMD (63%) (Figure 1) but only in 5/51 eyes with dry AMD (10%; p<.001). In 19/24 patients with bilateral exudative AMD (79%), both eyes presented vitreomacular interface abnormalities. As for the patients with unilateral exudative AMD, in 24/51 patients (47%) these abnormalities were present in the eye with the exudative form and absent in the fellow eye.
Conclusions:
Spectral-domain OCT enables a detailed analysis of the vitreomacular interface and offers complementary data to understand the pathogenesis of exudative AMD. Vitreomacular interface abnormalities are detected more often in eyes with exudative AMD than in eyes with dry AMD and may constitute an additional risk factor for the development of exudative AMD.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • vitreous • imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound)