Multimodal Imaging of Reticular Pseudodrusen in a Population-Based Setting: The Alienor Study

Abstract

Purpose: To document reticular pseudodrusen (RPD) using multimodal imaging in French elderly subjects.

Methods: A total of 494 subjects (970 eyes) aged 77 years or more, from the Alienor study, were examined in 2011 and 2012. Reticular pseudodrusen were defined as definite if they were present with at least two imaging methods among color retinal photographs, macular cube (20° × 15°) of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), fundus autofluorescence (FAF), and infrared reflectance (IR). The Youden index was calculated as specificity + sensitivity - 1.

Results: The prevalence of definite RPD was 13.4% and was higher among women (15.6%) than men (10.2%). It increased with age and reached almost 50% in subjects over 85 years. Infrared reflectance was the most sensitive technique (100%) and color fundus photography the least sensitive (34.5% at left eyes and 48.1% at right eyes). The best Youden index was obtained with IR (0.96 at both eyes) followed by SD-OCT (0.87 at right eye and 0.78 at left eye). Reticular pseudodrusen were present in 4.6% of eyes without AMD, 13.0% with early AMD1, 62.6% with early AMD2, 34.6% with atrophic AMD, and 8.1% with neovascular AMD. Reticular pseudodrusen were significantly associated with central and pericentral intermediate soft drusen (odds ratio [OR]: 2.14; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.11-4.14 and OR: 1.49; 95% CI = 1.16-1.90, respectively) and central large soft drusen (OR: 1.67; 95% CI = 1.16-2.42).

Conclusions: Using multimodal imaging, the prevalence of RPD appears higher than previously reported in studies based on retinal photography only. Reticular pseudodrusen frequently accompany other signs of AMD. Infrared reflectance and SD-OCT appear to be particularly relevant methods to diagnose RPD.