Abstract
Purpose :
Subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDD) have been recognized as new and important lesions that are independently associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The prevalence of SDD has been reported in several racial or ethnic populations, but there is no such data concerning Chinese population. We study the frequency of SDD in a group of Chinese patients with AMD.
Methods :
This is a retrospective study involving 117 eyes of 75 patients with any form of AMD. Images obtained with multimodal devices including color fundus photography, infrared reflectance, autofluorescence, and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) were examined. AMD severity was graded using the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2) classification system (early to intermediate: grade 2-8; geographic atrophy (GA): grade 9 and 10; exudative: grade 11). The presence of SDD was determined by appearance on at least 1 en face imaging modality and on SD-OCT. SDD were graded using an OCT-based 3-stage system and also classified into subtypes: dot and ribbon.
Results :
Overall, SDD were found in 25.6% (30/117) of eyes. Lesion frequency in the groups of early-intermediate, GA, and exudative was 28.4% (19/67), 50% (2/4), and 18.8% (9/48), respectively, with no statistical difference among the groups (P = 0.266). Dot SDD were found in 28 eyes of 24 patients, and ribbon SDD were found in 2 eyes of 1 patient. Patients with and without SDD did not show significant age difference (74.2 vs 71.1 years, P = 0.220). However, in patients who were over 80 years old, the frequency of SDD appearance in at least one eye reached 47.4% (9/19). By contrast, this number was 28.6% (16/56) for those under 80 years of age.
Conclusions :
The preliminary study suggests that SDD may have high rate of appearance in Chinese AMD patients, and the frequency may increase with age. Further study with larger number of subjects in multiple centers is warranted. New AMD classification system including SDD is necessary for disease management.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.