The clinical classification of maculopathies in adults. A survey

The development of fluorescein angiography and the introduction of laser technology into the treatment of macular diseases has considerably widened our knowledge of the pathological processes in the macular region. A number of clinicopathological reports have confirmed the angiographic findings and interpretations. The aetiological factors that lay behind the clinical lesions are, however, still unknown. The clinical pictures have, as a result of the above, more relation to the histological than to the aetiological classifications. Clinical classification includes an analysis and categorization of the individual diseases. This process takes place daily in the surgery of every ophthalmologist by means of the ophthalmoscope. The ophthalmoscopical examination is enhanced by knowledge of the angiographic picture of the lesion. This means that in the great majority of cases it is possible using the ophthalmoscope alone, to evaluate the type and anatomical localization of the pathological lesions. Fluorescein angiography is the most important single supplementary examination, both with regard to the diagnosis, indication for treatment and the follow-up. The present work describes 9 clinically and histopathologically well-defined lesions, which isolated or in combination are seen in the majority of adult macular diseases.