Pramila Balasubramaniam1, Saraswathy Elumalai2
BACKGROUND
Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD) is a common, progressive degenerative disorder of the macula and affects people above 50. Degenerative lesions of macula have been classified clinically into two forms the dry and the wet/neovascular, both the forms can lead on to loss of vision. Fundus photography and fluorescein angiography is highly valuable in the diagnosis, management and for monitoring the treatment of retinal and macular diseases. Optical coherence tomography is now becoming a popular tool in the early diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
50 patients (100 eyes) attending the Outpatient Department of Ophthalmology at Government Vellore Medical College who are diagnosed clinically to have age-related macular degeneration were enrolled for this study after getting their consent. Complete history taking, ocular examination, fundus fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography were done and observations recorded. This is a prospective hospital-based study. The period of our study was from June 2015-June 2016. Ethical committee approval was obtained for conducting the study.
Inclusion Criteria- All age group, both sexes, newly-diagnosed patients to have ARMD clinically.
Exclusion Criteria- Patients already on treatment for ARMD, patients with media opacities obscuring fundus examination, patients who has undergone previous laser treatment patients having coexisting other retinal and macular diseases.
RESULTS
Maximum number of patients are in the age group of 50-70 yrs. female preponderance. Dry ARMD is common among females (34%) and wet ARMD common in males (26%), smoking being the risk factor. 88% had bilateral disease. 62% of the eyes by FFA and 61% of the eyes by OCT had dry ARMD and 32% of the eyes by FFA and 33% by OCT had wet ARMD. In our study, both FFA and OCT showed subfoveal CNVM as the most common type of classic CNVM.
CONCLUSION
Fundus Fluorescein Angiography is the gold standard procedure for screening ARMD and detection of dry ARMD, but OCT is more specific diagnostic tool in detecting early subretinal neovascular membrane and also to assess the extent, location and activity of the neovascular membranes. Hence, OCT is better diagnostic tool than FFA in diagnosing early wet ARMD and thus helps in early management of patients with ARMD and thereby preventing severe visual loss due to ARMD.
