FLUCTUATING EXUDATION IN NON-NEOVASCULAR GEOGRAPHIC ATROPHY

Abstract

To report a case series of exudation in non-neovascular geographic atrophy (GA), which fluctuated and spontaneously almost resolved during the follow-up. A retrospective study was designed to include consecutive cases with geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) associated with intraretinal fluid (IRF) but without macular neovascularization (MNV). Three eyes of 2 patients (one male, one female) were enrolled. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and angiographies (OCT angiography and/or dye angiographies) were performed to confirm diagnosis of IRF and the absence of MNV. At baseline best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was between 20/50 and 20/36. SD-OCT displayed IRF in the inner and outer retinal layers with an increased central macular thickness. OCT-A and dye angiographies did not show any abnormal neovascular network. Of note, fluorescein angiography showed a leakage in correspondence of the intraretinal cysts, differently from the degenerative pseudocysts. After one month of follow-up, BCVA remained stable, while the IRF spontaneously almost resolved in all cases. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a fluctuating exudation in non-neovascular GA. Future studies are required to better define this potential novel clinical phenotype.