title: Phenotype Characteristics of Fellow Eyes in Patients With Early Onset of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate phenotype characteristics of fellow eyes in patients with early onset of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NVAMD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with new-onset unilateral NVAMD between 50 and 65 years (n = 57, early-onset choroidal neovascularization [CNV] group) or >80 years (n = 47, late-onset CNV group) or with nonneovascular AMD (n = 98, no-CNV group) were included. Fellow eyes in both CNV groups and the eyes with the more severe AMD staging in the no-CNV group were used to evaluate number and size of macular drusen, extramacular drusen (EMD), pigmentary abnormalities, and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) atrophy on color photographs and hyperreflective dots (HRD) and reticular pseudodrusen (RPD) on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) scans. Regression analysis was used to compare groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Occurrence of >20 macular drusen was more frequent in the early-onset CNV group than the late-onset CNV group (odds ratio [OR] 2.93; P = 0.01) or the no-CNV group (OR 2.17; P = 0.02). Retinal pigment epithelium atrophy, RPD, and HRD appeared less frequently in the early-onset CNV group than in the late-onset CNV group (RPE atrophy: OR 0.11; P = 0.005; RPD: OR 0.04; P = 9.38 × 10⁻¹⁰, HRD: OR 0.30; P = 0.004) and no-CNV group (RPE atrophy: OR 0.12; P = 0.005; RPD: OR 0.40, P = 0.03, HRD: not significant). No differences were detected regarding presence of large drusen, pigmentary abnormalities, and EMD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A large number of macular drusen in the fellow eye appeared to be characteristic for early onset of NVAMD, whereas RPE atrophy, HRD, and RPD were more frequently present in AMD patients > 80 years. Prospective trials with patients converting to NVAMD are required to further analyze morphologic characteristics for early versus late development of advanced AMD.
authors.affiliation: Cologne Image Reading Center Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany 2Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schick
authors.affiliation: Cologne Image Reading Center Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany 2Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Lebriz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ersoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carel B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Hoyng
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kirchhof
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liakopoulos
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002829:Choroid / Q000473:pathology*; D020256:Choroidal Neovascularization / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008266:Macula Lutea / Q000473:pathology*; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence