Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate possible characteristic features of the fellow eye in patients with unilateral wet age-related macular degeneration (ARMD).
Methods: :
We review retrospectively infrared (IR), autofluorescence (AF), red-free (RF), fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography (FAG+ICGA) images of 62 cases with unilateral ARMD. We selected the first consecutive cases with classic choroidal neovascularization (15), occult choroidal neovascularization (15), polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (17) retinal angiomatous proliferations (15) taken from a large database of patients with unilateral wet age-related macular degeneration.
Results: :
In patients with classic choroidal neovascularization 6 (40) % fellow eyes were normal in all the images, 8 (53%) eyes showed aspecific defects of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) with no characteristic pattern, 1 (7%) eye showed pattern mottling pigment. No common features were possible to identify.In patient with occult choroidal neovascularization 4 (27%) eyes were normal in all the images, 11 (73%) eyes showed focal drusen at the posterior pole well visible in all the images. Three of them had important drusenoid detachment of RPE and two of them showed features visible only in IR characterized by round areas with well defined hyporeflectant edge that looks like buttons (buttons like BL).In patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy 7 (41%) eyes were normal and 10 (59%) eyes showed rare drusen and aspecifics defects of RPE with no characteristic pattern.All patients with retinal angiomatous proliferations (RAP) had confluent drusen at the posterior pole and 8 (53%) eyes showed in IR BL features.
Conclusions: :
Classic and polypoidal choroidal neovascularizations dimostrated rare and aspecific defects in the fellow eye. Occult choroidal neovascularizations showed constant retinal changes but always aspecific. The only wet ARMD wich seems to have a characteristic feature in the fellow eye was RAP.
Keywords: retina • anatomy • age-related macular degeneration