Neovascularization mainly occult, subfoveal in newly diagnosed wet AMD

Newly diagnosed cases of exudative age-related macular degeneration involve mainly occult and subfoveal neovascular lesions, according to a study by researchers in France. Retinal angiomatous proliferations may also appear as common lesions in such patients, the study authors noted.

Salomon Y. Cohen, MD, PhD, and colleagues investigated the types and locations of choroidal neovascularization in 207 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed exudative AMD. All patients underwent fluorescein angiography, and half also underwent indocyanine green angiography, according to the study.

The researchers observed occult CNV with vascularized pigment epithelial detachments in 23.9% of patients and occult CNV without detachments in 32.7% of patients. Retinal angiomatous proliferations were seen in 15.1% of cases, which accounted for 30% of vascularized pigment epithelial detachments, the authors reported.

Overall, 17.6% of patients had classic CNV only, while 5.4% had predominantly classic CNV and 8.3% had minimally classic CNV.

Additionally, hemorrhagic AMD was observed in 5.8% of patients, and 4.8% had fibrovascular scars, the authors reported.

Lesions were mainly subfoveal, occurring in 80% of cases, they noted.

The study is published in the September issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.