PATTERN OF AGE-RELATED MACULOPATHY IN THE MACULAR AREA - THE BEAVER DAM EYE STUDY

Purpose. To describe the distribution of lesions associated with age-r elated maculopathy by location in the macula in a population of adult Americans. Methods. Four thousand nine hundred twenty-six persons rang ing in age from 43 to 84 years and living in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, at the time of a census (1987-1988) were examined from 1988 to 1990. Les ions typical of age-related maculopathy were determined by masked grad ing of stereoscopic color fundus photographs using the Wisconsin Age-R elated Maculopathy Grading System. The extent and prevalence of differ ent types of lesions were determined for each of nine macular subfield regions: central, inner superior, inner nasal, inner inferior, inner temporal, outer superior, outer nasal, outer inferior, and outer tempo ral. Results. Lesions associated with early age-related maculopathy we re distributed in specific patterns. Soft indistinct drusen were more prevalent in the temporal and superior quadrants than in the nasal and inferior quadrants, whereas pigmentary abnormalities associated with age-related maculopathy were more prevalent in the superior or nasal q uadrants than in the inferior or temporal quadrants. After weighting f or subfield area, all types of lesions were most prevalent in the cent ral macular region. Conclusion. Various lesions associated with early age-related maculopathy were located in specific patterns in the macul a. It is not known whether these patterns resulted from environmental, anatomic, or physiologic factors.