Reticular drusen in a Chinese population

Abstract

Aims: To determine the association of reticular drusen with macular diseases in a Hong Kong Chinese population.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of patients with reticular drusen recruited from 1 January 2013 to 30 June 2013. Optical coherence tomography was performed in all patients to confirm the presence of subretinal drusenoid deposits. Near-infrared photography, red-free photography, fundus fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, and fundus autofluorescence were performed on selected patients. Diagnosis of reticular drusen was made by an experienced retinal specialist, after which data were collected and analyzed.

Results: A total of 105 patients were identified and included for analysis. The mean age was 73.8 (standard deviation, 3.7) years. Overall, 21.9% of the patients were found to have non-exudative age-related macular degeneration, 17.1% had exudative age-related macular degeneration, and 3.8% had polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. No other macular pathology apart from reticular drusen was detected in the remaining 57.1%.

Conclusions: The spectrum of macular diseases associated with reticular drusen was noted to differ between Chinese and other ethnic groups, with a lower proportion of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration in the Chinese population. Despite a higher prevalence of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy in the Chinese population, the proportion of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy in the current cohort was still low, possibly due to different layers being involved in pathogenesis.