ICG VIDEOANGIOGRAPHY OF OCCULT CHOROIDAL NEOVASCULARIZATION IN AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION

Digital indocyanine green videoangiography has recently been reported to improve the imaging of occult choroidal neovascularization. In this study, 44 eyes with occult choroidal neovascularization in age-relate d macular degeneration were studied with fluorescein and indocyanine g reen videoangiography. On indocyanine green videoangiographic examinat ion, 6 of the 44 eyes (13.6%) with occult choroidal neovascularization had vascularized pigment epithelial detachment and 27 (61.4%) had vas cularized retinal pigment epithelium. In the remaining 11 (25%) eyes w hich had previous laser photocoagulation, indocyanine green videoangio graphy confirmed the presence of recurrence while fluorescein revealed no demonstrable neovascularization. The findings in our study indicat e that patients with occult choroidal neovascularization have manifest ations that are more clearly demonstrated with indocyanine green video angiography and improved imaging of these abnormal vessels could poten tially increase the number of patients eligible for photocoagulation t reatment.