CLINICAL-APPLICATION OF DIGITAL INDOCYANINE GREEN VIDEOANGIOGRAPHY IN SENILE MACULAR DEGENERATION

Digital indocyanine green videoangiography (ICGV) was done in 34 eyes of 24 patients with aging macular degeneration (AMD), including drusen, either alone (6 eyes) or in association with other AMD changes (9 eyes), geographic atrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium (2 eyes), well-defined choroidal neovascularization (CNV; 3 eyes), occult CNV (12 eyes) and recurrent CNV (11 eyes). Of the 11 eyes with soft drusen, 10 showed abnormal fluorescence in the late ICGV picture. ICGV of the 4 eyes with hard drusen showed no abnormality. The geographic atrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium and choriocapillaris remained hypofluorescent with sharply demarcated boundaries throughout the study. ICGV confirmed the presence of CNV in all 3 eyes with well-defined CNV and in 11 of the 12 eyes with occult CNV. Additionally, all but 1 eye with primary occult CNV and 6 of the 8 eyes with recurrent occult CNV could be reclassified in this study as having well-defined CNV. Overall, ICGV yielded additional information in 17 of the 20 eyes with primary and recurrent occult CNV. Its clinical importance for the evaluation of early stages of AMD has still to be confirmed by future investigations. ICGV is recommended as a diagnostic examination in eyes with CNV poorly defined by fluorescein angiography.