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Review
. 2021 Dec 27;12(1):36.
doi: 10.3390/life12010036.

Retinal Progression Biomarkers of Early and Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Rita Flores  1   2 , Ângela Carneiro  3 , Sandra Tenreiro  2 , Miguel C Seabra  2   4
Affiliations
Review

Retinal Progression Biomarkers of Early and Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Rita Flores et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

Early and intermediate AMD patients represent a heterogeneous population with an important but variable risk of progression to more advanced stages of the disease. The five-year progression from early and intermediate AMD to late disease is known to range from 0.4% to 53%. This wide variation explains the particular interest in searching predictive AMD biomarkers. Clinical parameters such as drusen size, presence of pigmentary abnormalities, and fellow eye status were, traditionally, the more important predictive elements. Multimodal retinal assessment (Color Fundus Photography, Optical Coherence Tomography, Optical Coherence Angiography and Fundus Autofluorescence) is providing new and accurate image biomarkers, useful in research and in daily practice. If individual progression risk could be anticipated, then management plans should be adapted accordingly, considering follow-up intervals and therapeutic interventions. Here, we reviewed the most important image progression biomarkers of early and intermediate AMD with relevant interest in clinical practice.

Keywords: OCT-angiography; age related macular degeneration (AMD); color fundus photography; drusen; optical coherence tomography; progression biomarkers.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare that they have no competing financial, professional or personal interests that might have influenced the performance or presentation of the work described in this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Identification of OCT progression biomarkers of AMD in cross sectional SD-OCT scan. Example of (A) Hyperreflective foci (arrow); (B) Subretinal drusenoid deposits (arrow); (C) iRORA (1); Hyper-transmission defects (2); OCT-reflective drusen substructures (ODS) (3). Representative imagens acquired using OCT SPECTRALIS (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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