Multimodal Imaging of Unaffected Fellow Eyes in Patients with Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy and Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Objective: To identify retinal abnormalities in the unaffected fellow eyes of patients with unilateral polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (n-AMD). Methods: In this cross-sectional, retrospective case series, the medical records of patients with PCV and n-AMD were reviewed and the baseline patient characteristics recorded. Abnormal findings on spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) (steep/notched pigment epithelial detachment [PED], double-layer sign, hyporeflective lumen within the PED), fundus autofluorescence (FAF) (ring/patch patterns), and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) (punctate hyperfluorescence spot [PHS]) were studied. Results: Seventy-one fellow eyes of patients with PCV and 64 fellow eyes of patients with n-AMD were included. FAF showed abnormalities in 26 (36.6%) and 33 (51.6%) fellow eyes of those with PCV and n-AMD, respectively (p=0.081). SD-OCT detected abnormalities in 25 (35.2%) and 36 (56.3%) fellow eyes of those with PCV and n-AMD, respectively (p=0.014). ICGA detected PHS in 47 (66.2%) and 34 (53.1%) fellow eyes of PCV and n-AMD, respectively (p=0.122). Conclusion: Multimodal imaging showed abnormalities in most asymptomatic fellow eyes of patients with PCV and n-AMD. Regular and long-term self-monitoring and fundus evaluation are important for these patients. The current findings support the differences in the pathogeneses of PCV and n-AMD.