Original articlePreferred Retinal Locus Development in Patients with Macular Disease
Section snippets
Patient Selection
Patients were recruited from the Medical Retina, Accident & Emergency and Low Vision clinics at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. Eligible patients reported vision loss in their second affected eye in the 2 weeks before recruitment, which was confirmed by examination of visual acuity (VA) and comparison with previous notes made in the patient record. Patients had a primary diagnosis of AMD, Stargardt’s disease, or Best’s disease and had no ocular comorbidity other than visually insignificant
Patients and Length of Follow-up
Fifteen patients with exudative AMD, 5 with geographic AMD, 4 with Stargardt’s disease, and 1 with Best’s disease were recruited into the study. Eighteen of the 25 patients completed 12 months of follow-up and 7 were removed earlier: 6 after 6 months and 1 after 3 months. In 6 of these patients, the reason for exclusion was an enlargement of the scotoma, whereas 1 patient experienced a severe deterioration in her general health.
Location of the Principal Preferred Retinal Locus
The location of the principal PRL at the baseline assessment for
Discussion
This study used a novel longitudinal strategy to describe the development of the PRL for a group of MD patients with recent vision loss in their better eye. In all of the patients, a repeatable retinal area for fixation developed within 6 months, with half of the patients using their final PRL location at the first assessment (that is, within 1 month of scotoma development). Although it is possible that some of these patients will make further adaptations in the years after their scotoma
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Glen Harding for calibrating the power of the scanning laser ophthalmoscope.
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Manuscript no. 2004-174.
Supported by the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Reading, United Kingdom (Ophthalmic Research Grant no.: 2000-29a [MDC]), and the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium (grant no.: QLRT-2002-00214 [GSR]).
The authors have no financial interest in any of the techniques or equipment described in the article.