Symptomatic choroidal neovascularization in blacks.
OBJECTIVE
To acquire descriptive clinical information regarding choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in black Americans.


METHODS
Retrospective review of 1308 fluorescein angiograms obtained during a 4-year interval. Color photographs and clinical records of all black patients with angiographically apparent CNV were subsequently reviewed.


METHODS
Retina service of an inner-city county hospital in Atlanta, Ga, serving a predominantly black population.


RESULTS
Thirty blacks with CNV (36 of 59 eyes) were identified, 26 (87%) of whom were female. Active, exudative neovascularization was present in at least one eye of 21 patients (70%). Patients were assigned to one of four diagnostic groups for analysis. Group 1 was made up of 13 patients (43%) with age-related macular degeneration with CNV. Women outnumbered men 5.5:1. Choroidal neovascularization was peripapillary in seven (54%) of these 13 patients. Group 2 was made up of six patients (20%) with idiopathic CNV, which was peripapillary in all eyes. Group 3 consisted of three women (10%) with idiopathic polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Group 4 was composed of eight patients (27%) with secondary CNV. The CNV was peripapillary in three (33%) of nine eyes, and women outnumbered men 7:1.


CONCLUSIONS
The spectrum of neovascular maculopathy in blacks in the current study differed from that typically seen in whites, both clinically and demographically. Clinically, CNV was most commonly juxtapapillary (13 [68%] of 19 patients) and unilateral (12 [92%] of 13 patients) among the age-related macular degeneration and idiopathic groups, while six (20%) of 30 patients (all older than 50 years) had CNV in the absence of drusen or other known predisposing conditions. Disciform-stage CNV in both groups was associated with a greater degree of pigment proliferation than that typically noted in whites. Demographically, female predominance (87% overall) was dramatic compared with prior studies.
Capone
A
A
Department of Ophthalmology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
Wallace
R T
RT
Meredith
T A
TA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044383:Black People; D002829:Choroid / Q000098:blood supply*; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D005654:Fundus Oculi; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D001741:Black or African American