Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate in eyes with solitary geographic atrophy (GA) lesions due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) the association between autofluorescence (AF) intensity signals and GA area growth for the evaluation of AF as a predictor for advanced AMD progression.
Methods :
43 eyes of 26 patients (age 79.7 ± 7.2 years; 28 female; 16 pseudophakic) with solitary GA due to AMD underwent spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and quantitative autofluorescence (qAF) imaging (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany)at day one and after 12 months. The junctional zone and a non-affected control region outside the junctional zone at baseline were marked and subdivided into eight topographic sections on 6x6mm SD-OCT volume-scans and transferred to the qAF image using custom-made reading center software (OCTAVO, Vienna Reading Center). At the 12 months visit the GA growth area was delineated. Baseline and follow-up areas (mm2), together with congruent qAF were then measured for each section separately. A linear mixed model was calculated to investigate an association between age, qAF intensities, GA and junctional zone area at baseline with GA progression 12 months later.
Results :
The area of the junctional zone at baseline was significantly associated with GA progression after 12 months in the overall model (p<0.001) and in all sectoral analyses (all p<0.001, except for the nasal and the inferior-temporal sections; p=0.01 and p=0.002, respectively). In the overall model, qAF measurements were not associated with GA progression (p>0.05), however, in the inferior, inferior-nasal and inferior-temporal sections, qAF in the junctional zone (p=0.028; p=0.014 and p=0.032), but also qAF in the control area (p=0.043; p=0.02 and p=0.028) was significantly associated with the progression of GA, with positive estimates for qAF in the junctional zone, but negative estimates for qAF in the control area. Age was only associated with GA progression in the superior-nasal section (p=0.017).
Conclusions :
We reported a significant association between GA growth and qAF measurements in specific retinal sections as well as between junctional zone area and GA progression area. qAF and SD-OCT measurements may be useful for the prediction of GA progression, with qAF potentially limited to certain retinal sections.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.