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Updated: Feb 20, 2026
Author Spotlight: Ex Vivo OCT-Based Multimodal Imaging of Human Donor Eyes for Research into Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Published on: May 26, 2023
PREFERRED RETINAL LOCUS LOCATIONS IN AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION
Murat Erbezci1, Taylan Ozturk2
1Erbezci Eye Clinic, Izmir, Turkey.
Purpose:
An evaluation of the preferred retinal locus (PRL) in patients with age-related macular degeneration and a central scotoma is becoming a standard of care in the practice of low-vision rehabilitation. This is a retrospective study of PRL specifications and whether they have a correlation with the best-corrected visual acuities of patients with age-related macular degeneration.
Methods:
Seventy-two patients with macular degeneration (144 eyes) were included in the study. The PRLs were evaluated monocularly with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope. Each PRL's location, the fovea-PRL distance, the PRL edge of the lesion distance, and PRL stability were measured with the built-in caliper of the ophthalmoscope.
Results:
The most frequent location of a PRL was nasal (29.2%). The PRL was located in the left visual field of 34.0% of the patients. The best-corrected visual acuity values were positively correlated with the lesion's vertical and horizontal dimensions, as well as its surface area, the PRL-fovea distance, the PRL border of the lesion distance, and PRL stability.
Conclusion:
The clinical PRL evaluation methodology that we describe can be used to facilitate making decisions on how to provide best visual rehabilitation to patients with a central scotoma.
