This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Night vision symptoms in AMD patients may signal higher risk of visual decline

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Andrew P. Schachat

WAILEA, Hawaii — Night vision symptoms in age-related macular degeneration patients were shown to be indicative of oncoming visual decline, a surgeon said here.

"When patients are complaining of trouble with night vision, it's an early warning sign," Andrew P. Schachat, MD, said at Retina 2009.

At their baseline examination, patients were given a night vision questionnaire. The findings of these surveys correlated with three lines of visual loss and development of choroidal neovascularization and geographic atrophy.

Dr. Schachat said he also considers patients older than 50 years with 10 or more large drusen and good vision to be at high risk and recommended following them closely to best treat any decline.

"I used to follow patients once a year, and now I follow them twice a year. I think that if the patient is willing to come every 3 months, there's no trouble with that," he said. "The way I follow them is by measuring vision and doing an eye exam. Nothing special."