Assessing the photoreceptor mosaic over drusen using adaptive optics and SD-OCT

Drusen are extracellular deposits that accumulate between the retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch's membrane. They are one of the earliest clinical manifestations of age-related macular degeneration and it is thought that they disrupt the overlying photoreceptors, leading to subsequent vision loss. The purpose of this study was to illustrate how spectral domain optical coherence tomography and adaptive optics fundus imaging can be used to quantitatively analyze the integrity of the overlying photoreceptors in a single subject with macular drusen. This imaging approach and the image analysis metrics introduced may serve as the foundation for valuable imaging-based biomarkers for detecting the earliest stages of disease, tracking progression, and monitoring treatment response.