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Updated: May 13, 2026
Characterization of Vascular Morphology of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration by Indocyanine Green Angiography
Published on: August 11, 2023
Characterization of neovascular age-related macular degeneration patients with outer retinal tubulations
F Faria-Correia1, R Barros-Pereira, L Queirós-Mendanha
1Department of Ophthalmology, Hospital São João, Porto, Portugal. f.faria.correia@gmail.com
Purpose:
To characterize the neovascular lesions of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and outer retinal tubulations (ORTs).
Methods:
A retrospective study of 377 eyes with exudative AMD, submitted to intravitreal anti-angiogenic treatment. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the presence or absence of ORTs on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT; group 1 - with ORTs; group 2 - without ORTs). Age, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), fluorescein angiography characteristics, presence of subretinal fibrosis and subfoveal photoreceptor integrity on SD-OCT were analyzed.
Results:
Although both groups had a BCVA gain during the follow-up period, initial and final BCVA were lower in group 1 (p = 0.020 and p = 0.042, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in the BCVA variation between the 2 groups (p = 0.907). Regarding the initial angiographic lesion type, there was a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups (p = 0.008): group 1 had more lesions with a classic component and group 2 had more occult lesions with no classic component. There was a statistically significant difference concerning the loss of subfoveal photoreceptor integrity (p = 0.0007).
Conclusions:
Even though AMD patients with ORTs were associated with poor visual outcomes, we reported BCVA improvement. AMD patients with a classical component in their lesions are prone to develop ORTs.
