Subretinal hyperreflective material in retinal and chorioretinal disorders: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Subretinal hyperreflective material (SHRM) is a common and remarkable optical coherence tomography (OCT) biomarker whose importance is emerging in several retinal and chorioretinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, central serous chorioretinopathy, polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy, pathologic myopia, posterior uveitis, vitelliform lesions and macular dystrophies, and rarer disorders. Multimodal imaging, also thanks to the introduction of OCT angiography, allowed a deeper characterisation of SHRM components and its morphological changes after treatment, suggesting its usefulness in clinical practice. We discuss and summarize the nature, multimodal imaging characteristics, and prognostic and predictive significance of SHRM in the different retinal and choroidal disorders in which it has been described.

Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration; Anti-VEGF therapy; Choroidal neovascularisation; Macular dystrophies; Macular neovascularisation; Pachychoroid disease; Pathologic myopia; Posterior uveitis; Subretinal hyperreflective material; Vitelliform material.