Abstract
Purpose :
To determine the frequency of various optical coherence tomography (OCT) biomarkers of intermediate age-related macular degeneration (int-AMD) and their relationship with the development of complete retinal pigment epithelium and outer retinal atrophy(cRORA) after 3 or more years.
Methods :
This retrospective study enrolled 1118 eyes of 765 consecutive patients with int-AMD and at least 12 months of follow-up (including OCT) who were evaluated between October 2016 and October 2020 in Retina Consultant of Houston eye clinics. 250 of these eyes had 36-48 months of follow-up and were included in this analysis. Spectralis OCT 49 slice volume scans at baseline were evaluated for biomarkers including a high central drusen volume (define as ≥ 0.03mm3), intraretinal hyperreflective foci (IHRF), subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDD), hyporeflective drusen cores (hDC), incomplete RORA (iRORA), and a thin or thick double layer sign (DLS). Demographic and systemic factors at baseline were also collected. The presence of cRORA was assessed at the final visit between 36 and 48 months. Odds ratios for the baseline features for development of cRORA were assessed using logistic regression and generalized estimating equations.
Results :
The frequency of the various OCT biomarkers in this int-AMD cohort is shown in Table 1. Several baseline features were associated with a significantly higher risk for development of cRORA at 3 years including iRORA, IHRF, SDD, hDC, and a thin DLS. (Table 2). Interestingly, hypertension was associated with a significantly lower risk.
Conclusions :
Several OCT biomarkers are associated with an increased risk for development of cRORA over three years. These biomarkers may be useful for prognostication and for selecting patients for enrollment into future early intervention clinical trials for AMD.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.