title: The Minnesota Grading System of eye bank eyes for age-related macular degeneration.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Minnesota Grading System (MGS) is a method to evaluate human eye bank eyes and determine the level of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), by using criteria and definitions from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Donor eyes (108 pairs) from the Minnesota Lions Eye Bank were cut circumferentially at the pars plana to remove the anterior segment. A 1000 +/- 2.5-microm ruby sphere was placed on the optic nerve as a size reference. A digital, high-resolution, color macular photograph was taken through a dissecting microscope. The neurosensory retina was removed from one globe of the pair. The underlying retinal pigment epithelium was rephotographed, localizing the fovea with a proportional triangle. A grid was superimposed in the macular photographs and images were graded according to AREDS criteria. Twenty pairs were dissected bilaterally and graded for symmetry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty-eight globes were graded into one of four MGS categories. Nineteen (95%) of 20 globes had symmetric grades.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MGS provides a methodology to grade donor tissue from eye bank eyes to correspond to the AREDS classification system. Donor tissue may be used for subsequent molecular analysis, including genomics and proteomics.
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota, Department of Ophthalmology, MMC Box 493, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0501, USA. olsen010@umn.edu
authors.forename: Timothy W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004210:Dissection; D005123:Eye / Q000473:pathology*; D005125:Eye Banks; D005654:Fundus Oculi; D006801:Humans; D007909:Lenses; D008266:Macula Lutea / Q000473:pathology; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000473:pathology*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota; D010781:Photography