Near-infrared fundus autofluorescence of the unaffected fellow eyes of patients with unilateral exudative age-related macular degeneration

摘要

Purpose : To compare the findings of short-wave fundus autofluorescence (SW-AF) and near-infrared AF (NIR-AF) of the unaffected fellow eyes of patients with unilateral exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods : This study involved 142 patients with unilateral exudative AMD. Confirmation of unilateral affliction and the absence of disease onset in the fellow eyes were based on spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), fluorescence angiography (FA), and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA). The abnormal findings obtained on the SW-AF images (excitation: 488nm; detection: 500nm) and NIR-AF images (excitation: 787nm; detection: 800nm) of the unaffected fellow eyes were compared from the point of frequency and extent. Evaluation of each image was conducted outside the presumed area of macular pigment in order to avoid any misinterpretation of the SW-AF images. Results : Of the 142 unaffected fellow eyes, 75 eyes (52.8%) demonstrated abnormal autofluorescence on both SW-AF and NIR-AF images. Among those, 61 eyes (81.3%) had a larger extent of autofluorescence abnormality on NIR-AF than on SW-AF. The remaining 14 eyes had a similar extent of autofluorescence abnormalities on SW-AF and NIR-AF images. No eyes had more extensive abnormalities on SW-AF than on NIR-AF. Of the 142 unaffected eyes, 11 eyes (7.8%) showed abnormal autofluorescence only on NIR-AF images. The other 56 eyes (39.4%) had no autofluorescence abnormalities on both SW-AF and NIR-AF images. No eyes demonstrated abnormal autofluorescence only on SW-AF. Conclusions : Our findings show that in the unaffected fellow eyes of patients with unilateral exudative AMD, autofluorescence abnormalities on NIR-AF images had the tendency to precede those on SW-AF images. NIR-AF may be useful for the earlier detection of prodromal change of exudative AMD, and may help to decide when to recommend supplemental treatment for the patients. This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.