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24th Annual Meeting of the German Retina Society

German Retina Society

17.06. - 18.06.2011, Aachen

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Function versus morphology of photoreceptors in pigment epithelium tears

Meeting Abstract

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  • Albert Caramoy - Universitäts-Augenklinik Köln
  • B. Kirchhof - Universitäts-Augenklinik Köln
  • S. Fauser - Universitäts-Augenklinik Köln

German Retina Society. 24th Annual Conference of the German Retina Society. Aachen, 17.-18.06.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc11rg35

doi: 10.3205/11rg35, urn:nbn:de:0183-11rg352

This is the English version of the article.
The German version can be found at: http://www.egms.de/de/meetings/rg2011/11rg35.shtml

Published: June 15, 2011

© 2011 Caramoy et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Background: Pigment epithelium tear secondary to age-related macular degeneration has a bad prognosis. Therapies with the aim of rescuing the photoreceptors, e.g. autologous transplantation of pigment epithelium, are only possible, if the photoreceptors are still viable. This study examines the function and morphology of photoreceptors in pigment epithelium tears.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 7 patients with pigment epithelium tears. Microperimetry (MP1 microperimeter, Nidek Technologies, Padua, Italy) and spectral domain OCT (Heidelberg Retina Angiograph 2, Heidelberg Engineering GmbH, Dossenheim, Germany) were used to assess the photoreceptors’ morphology and function.

Results: Absolute scotoma was seen in the microperimetrie on the retinal area without pigment epithelium support for all 7 patients. The junction of photoreceptors outer and inner segment (IS/OS) was seen in one patient. The external limiting membrane (ELM) was seen in 4 patients despite absolute scotoma. The ELM cannot be seen in 2 patients due to retinal atrophy, and in 1 patient due to bad image quality.

Conclusions: The photoreceptors do not function without pigment epithelium cells. These can be assessed in spectral domain OCT and is crucial for autologous transplantation of retinal pigment epithelium and choroid.