Prevalence and Risk Factors for Nonexudative Neovascularization in Fellow Eyes of Patients With Unilateral Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of subclinical nonexudative neovascularization and associated choroidal vascular changes in the fellow eyes of patients presenting with unilateral typical exudative AMD (tAMD) or polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) using indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) and swept-source (SS) optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A).

Methods: We recruited patients presenting with tAMD or PCV in a prospective clinical study. The diagnosis in the presenting eye was determined based on clinical, fluorescein angiography (FA), and ICGA findings. We evaluated the contralateral eye for presence of nonexudative neovascularization, choroidal hyperpermeability, and pachyvessels in the outer choroid, based on multimodal imaging which included ICGA, spectral-domain (SD) OCT and OCT-A. We measured subfoveal choroidal thickness in both eyes for each patient.

Results: We included 76 fellow eyes of 76 patients who presented with unilateral tAMD (n = 33) or PCV (n = 43). Nonexudative neovascularization was present in 18% eyes (14 eyes, 8 in tAMD group, 6 in PCV group; 7 on ICGA, 4 on OCT-A, 3 on both ICGA and OCT-A). Pachychoroid pigment epitheliopathy was present in 13 eyes with nonexudative neovascularization, and was the only risk factor associated with nonexudative neovascularization.

Conclusions: Approximately one in five fellow eyes with unilateral tAMD and PCV have features of nonexudative neovascularization. The use of multimodal imaging including ICGA and OCT-A can identify these features. The presence of pachychoroid epitheliopathy should alert clinicians to the possibility of underlying neovascularization.