title: Fundus autofluorescence and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography findings suggesting tissue remodelling in retinal pigment epithelium tear.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study tissue remodelling and wound healing after retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) tears due to age-related macular degeneration.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective longitudinal study of 36 eyes (33 patients) with RPE tears. Imaging was performed using fundus autofluorescence (FAF) (λ=488 nm) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Presence of intraretinal hyper-reflective dots in SD-OCT, which correlated with hyperfluorescent dots in FAF, indicating RPE migration was studied. Morphology of subretinal mass and RPE layer integrity in the RPE denuded area over time were examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  7 of 36 eyes (19.4%) showed patchy or hazy hyperfluorescent areas in FAF, and the majority of eyes (83.3%) showed hyper-reflective dots, which possibly represent intraretinal RPE migration and hard exudates. Homogenous subretinal mass was encountered in about half of all cases. In one case (2.8%), the RPE layer proliferated and covered the defect.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SD-OCT and FAF showed a considerable amount of RPE proliferation, migration and repopulation. Intraretinal RPE migration did not form a functional RPE layer. A small defect might be repaired by cell proliferation. But this RPE proliferation is not sufficient to cover large defects.
authors: Department of Vitreoretinal Surgery, Center of Ophthalmology, University of Cologne, Kerpenerstr. 62, 50924 Cologne, Germany. acaramoy@yahoo.co.uk
authors: Albert
authors: A
authors: Caramoy
authors: Sascha
authors: S
authors: Fauser
authors: Bernd
authors: B
authors: Kirchhof
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012163:Retinal Detachment / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055213:Retinal Pigment Epithelium / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*