Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To clarify the clinical characteristics of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) in Japanese by hospital–based study. Methods: We reviewed the consecutive patients series with submacular exudative lesions and/or presumed age–related macular degeneration (AMD). The subjects were enrolled from the patients in Department of Ophthalmolgy, Yamagata University Hospital from October 1, 2001 through December 3, 2003. The differential diagnossis between AMD and PCV were based on the criteria of Japanese PCV research group. All the patients underwent complete ophthalmologic examination, and fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography. Results: Among 87 eyes of 76 the subjects, 33 eyes of 29 patients (38%) were diagnosed as having PCV and 54 eyes of 47 patients (68%) as having neovascular AMD. The mean age of the PCV patients was 73.9 years, with a male preponderance (62%). Ninety percent was unilateral, and polypoidal vascular lesions were located mainly in the macular area (93%). PCV cases were characterized by serous macular detachment (67%), submacular hemorrhage (9%), and retinal pigment epithelium degeneration (3%). The subretinal fibrovascular proliferative lesions were rarely observed in the PCV cases (3%). Mean visual acuity was 0.65 (log MAR) in the eyes with PCV. The incidence of severe visual loss (0.2 or worse) was 45% in the PCV eyes and 69% in the AMD eyes. Conclusions: The present study has revealed that the icidence of PCV higher than the previous Japanese hospital based study (23% in the paper of Arch Ophthalmol 121, 1392,2003). In PCV eyes subretinal hemorrhage and fibrovascular proliferation were rarely detected. The difference of the prognosis of visual acuity was not so significant in PCV eyes than in AMD eyes.
Keywords: choroid: neovascularization • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • macula/fovea