TEN-YEAR FOLLOW-UP OF FELLOW EYES IN PATIENTS WITH UNILATERAL NAIVE EXUDATIVE AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION

To determine the 10-year morphologic outcomes and identify potential risk factors of exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the fellow eyes (FEs) in patients with naive exudative AMD.

Data from 100 patients were retrospectively reviewed. Baseline macular neovascularization (MNV) type in the exudative AMD eye and presence of drusen, intraretinal hyperreflective foci, nonfoveal incomplete retinal pigment epithelium and outer retinal atrophy, central retinal thickness, and subfoveal choroidal thickness in the FEs were analyzed as biomarkers for progression in the second eye.

Fifty-four patients developed exudative AMD in the FE at the end of the follow-up. Subjects with Type 2 and Type 3 macular neovascularization in the exudative AMD eye had a higher risk of exudative AMD in the FE (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.365; P = 0.039 and HR = 3.801; P = 0.037). Fellow eyes with drusen (large HR = 6.938, P = 0.001; cuticular HR = 6.937, P < 0.0001; subretinal drusenoid deposits HR = 13.678, P < 0.0001) and intraretinal hyperreflective foci (HR = 1.853, P = 0.041) were also at higher risk. Seven patients were legally blind by the end of the follow-up.

The rate of exudative AMD in the FE was 54% 10 years after the diagnosis in the exudative eye. The FE of patients with Type 2 and Type 3 macular neovascularization was at high risk of early progression. Drusen and intraretinal hyperreflective foci were also significant risk factors for macular neovascularization development.