Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Mar;29(3):397-402.
doi: 10.1038/eye.2014.313. Epub 2015 Jan 9.

Spectrum of morphological and visual changes due to vitreomacular interface disorders encountered in a large consecutive cohort of patients

W Fusi-Rubiano  1 , M Awad  1 , R Manjunath  1 , I Elaraoud  1 , N Narendran  1 , Y Yang  2
Affiliations

Spectrum of morphological and visual changes due to vitreomacular interface disorders encountered in a large consecutive cohort of patients

W Fusi-Rubiano et al. Eye (Lond). 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Aim: Identify the incidence of vitreomacular traction (VMT) and frequency of reduced vision in the absence of other coexisting macular pathology using a pragmatic classification system for VMT in a population of patients referred to the hospital eye service.

Methods: A detailed survey of consecutive optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans was done in a high-throughput ocular imaging service to ascertain cases of vitreomacular adhesion (VMA) and VMT using a departmental classification system. Analysis was done on the stages of traction, visual acuity, and association with other macular conditions.

Results: In total, 4384 OCT scan episodes of 2223 patients were performed. Two hundred and fourteen eyes had VMA/VMT, with 112 eyes having coexisting macular pathology. Of 102 patients without coexisting pathology, 57 patients had VMT grade between 2 and 8, with a negative correlation between VMT grade and number of Snellen lines (r=-0.61717). There was a distinct cutoff in visual function when VMT grade was higher than 4 with the presence of cysts and sub retinal separation and breaks in the retinal layers.

Conclusions: VMT is a common encounter often associated with other coexisting macular pathology. We estimated an incidence rate of 0.01% of VMT cases with reduced vision and without coexisting macular pathology that may potentially benefit from intervention. Grading of VMT to select eyes with cyst formation as well as hole formation may be useful for targeting patients who are at higher risk of visual loss from VMT.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Root and branch diagram showing the distribution of VMA/VMT in eyes identified.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Breakdown of coexisting macular pathology found on OCT scans.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of number of lines read in each grade of VMT from grade 2 to 8 in patients without coexisting pathology. One patient with CF vision was excluded from this plot (r=−0.61717).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Reese AB, Jones IS, Cooper WC. Vitreomacular traction syndrome confirmed histologically. Am J Ophthalmol. 1970;69 (6:975–977. - PubMed
    1. Sebag J. Anatomy and pathology of the vitreoretinal interface. Eye (Lond) 1992;6:541–552. - PubMed
    1. Smiddy WE, Michels RG, Green WR. Morphology, pathology, and surgery of idiopathic vitreoretinal macular disorders. A review. Retina. 1990;10:288–296. - PubMed
    1. Miller B, Miller H, Ryan SJ. Experimental vitreous syneresis. Arch Ophthalmol. 1985;103:1385–1388. - PubMed
    1. Sebag J. Anomalous posterior vitreous detachment: a unifying concept in vitreo-retinal disease. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2004;242:690–698. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources