EVALUATING PERSISTENT AND RECURRENT CHOROIDAL NEOVASCULARIZATION - THE ROLE OF INDOCYANINE GREEN ANGIOGRAPHY

Objective: To evaluate the clinical utility of routinely using indocya nine green angiography (ICGA) with fluorescein angiography (FA) in det ecting persistent or recurrent choroidal neovascularization (CNV). Des ign: Prospective, consecutive case series. Participants: Twenty-four e yes of 21 patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AM D) that had conventional laser treatment for CNV were examined. Interv ention: Fluorescein angiography and ICGA were performed together on ai l eligible eyes at the first post-treatment visit and all subsequent f ollow-up visits in which persistent or recurrent CNV was suspected cli nically. Main Outcome Measures: Choroidal neovascularization detection and delineation by each angiographic technique were measured. Results : Of the 54 FA-ICGA study pairs performed over a 20-month investigatio n period, FA showed well-defined, ill-defined, and no CNV in IO (19%), 19 (35%), and 25 (46%) eyes, respectively. Indocyanine green angiogra phy had a high concordance rate at 70% and 88% when persistent or recu rrent CNV was well-defined and absent, respectively, on FA and rarely added additional, clinically useful information in these settings, par ticularly in the former presentation. Of the 29 eyes that showed some evidence of CNV by FA, the neovascular complex was ill-defined in 19 ( 66%) eyes. When CNV was ill-defined by FA, the corresponding ICGA show ed well-defined CNV in 9 (47%) of 19 eyes, in 5 of which the CNV was n onsubfoveal in location. Conclusions: Persistent or recurrent CNV in A MD was frequently ill-defined by FA, Indocyanine green angiography was a valuable adjunct to FA by better delineating CNV in this specific s etting. However, ICGA was not useful when the post-treatment FA showed well-defined CNV. Furthermore, ICGA was not helpful when the first po st-treatment FA was negative and there were no ophthalmoscopic signs o f exudation.