Purpose: Using the Retro-mode (RM), to detect drusen and other minute lesions of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) invisible in current imaging methods in the fellow eye of Japanese patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Design: A retrospective cross-sectional study.
Patients and Methods: The fellow eyes of nineteen Japanese patients with unilateral exudative AMD were examined using RM imaging (F-10 fundus camera, Nidek), in contrast with fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, and optic coherence tomography (3D OCT-1000, Topcon Co). We were able to identify the type of drusen and minute granular lesions (MGLs) in the RPE.
Results: In all patients, RM imaging gave easier to identify images of all types of drusen than other current imaging methods. Moreover, MGLs of the RPE either adjacent to drusen or without drusen, invisible in other current methods, were detected by RM imaging.
Conclusions: The RM provides clearer imaging of all kind of drusen, and MGLs of the RPE invisible with current methods. These MGLs are possible precursors of drusen.
Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi (J Jpn Ophthalmol Soc) 116: 635-642, 2012.