Purpose:

To evaluate the correlation between microperimetric changes with symptom duration in eyes with classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to age-rela-ted macular degeneration (AMD).

Methods:

Nineteen eyes of 19 patients with classic subfoveal CNV secondary to AMD were evaluated. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was measured with ETDRS chart and fun-dus fluorescein angiography (FFA) was performed. Microperimetry was used to quantify macu-lar sensitivity and fixation pattern. The main outcome measures were BCVA, fixation location and fixation stability; and their relationship between the symptom duration was evaluated.

Results:

Among 11 eyes with the symptom duration of less than 3 months, 5 eyes (45%) had stable, 5 eyes (45%) had relative unstable fixation and 8 (73%) eyes had predominantly central fixation. Among 4 eyes with the semptom duration of between 3 to 6 months, 1 eye (25%) had relative unstable fixation and 3 (75%) eyes had stable fixation. There was 4 eyes with symptom duration of six months or more. Three out of these 4 eyes (75%) had predominantly eccentric fixation and 2 eyes (%50) had unstable fixation. There was moderate correlati-on between symptom duration with fixation location (p= 0.05). But there was not statistically significant correlation between symptom duration with fixation stability (p> 0.05).

Conclusion:

Our findings suggests that a great percentage of patients with less than 3 months of symptom duration can preserve their foveal fixation. Our findings also suggest that fixation location but not fixation stability moderately correlates with symptom duration in eyes with classic CNV secondary to AMD.

Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration, classic choroidal neovascularization, microperimetry