UNILATERAL RETICULAR PSEUDODRUSEN: Clinical Features and Potential Protective Factors.

PURPOSE: To describe the demographic and clinical data of patients with rare unilateral reticular pseudodrusen (RPD) presentation and investigate features that may play a protective role against their formation.

METHODS

This retrospective, multicenter case series included patients with unilateral RPD from multiple tertiary care centers. Demographic, longitudinal clinical, and multimodal imaging (MMI) data were collected and compared between the study eye showing the presence of RPD and the fellow eye. Central macular thickness, subfoveal choroidal thickness, and choroidal vascular index were measured.

RESULTS

Ten eyes of 10 patients with unilateral RPD were included, with a mean age of 87.3 years (±5.9). Fellow eyes exhibited four cases of retinal vein occlusion and one case of macular microaneurysm. Average baseline subfoveal choroidal thickness was 168.4 µ m (±79.1) in the eyes presenting RPD, where it was 194.4 µ m (±88.3) in the fellow eyes. Average choroidal vascular index at baseline was lower in RPD eyes (0.39, ±0.11) as opposed to 0.48 (±0.03) in fellow eyes.

CONCLUSION

Our study highlights potential protective factors associated with unilateral RPD in age-related macular degeneration, emphasizing the crucial role played by the choroid and the choriocapillaris-retinal pigment epithelium complex.