Precursors and Development of Geographic Atrophy with Autofluorescence Imaging: Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 Report Number 18

Purpose: To describe the sequence of events leading to development of geographic atrophy (GA) in age-related macular degeneration with fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging.

Design: Post hoc analysis of FAF images from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2.

Participants: Fundus autofluorescence images of 120 eyes (109 patients) with incident GA and at least 2 years of preceding FAF images.

Methods: Images of incident GA were stacked and aligned over FAF images of preceding annual visits. The regions of retina where incident GA developed were assessed on prior years' FAF images. These regions, defined as precursor lesions, were classified into minimal change autofluorescence, predominant hypoautofluorescence (decreased autofluorescence), predominant hyperautofluorescence (increased autofluorescence), and mixed autofluorescence. The natural progression in precursor lesions leading to GA formation and their associations with incident GA size and GA enlargement rate were evaluated.

Main Outcome Measures: Incident GA area and enlargement rate and precursor pattern frequency.

Results: Incident GA had a mean area of 1.00 mm (range, 0.15-8.22 mm) and an enlargement rate of 0.97 mm/year (standard deviation, 1.66 mm/year). Predominant hypoautofluorescence was the most common precursor lesion, increasing from 42% to 81% over 3 years before onset of GA. Almost 30% of eyes showed minimal change autofluorescence 3 years before GA. Among the other precursors, 70% progressed to predominant hypoautofluorescence before GA developed. The type of precursor lesions was not associated with incident GA area. Geographic atrophy evolving from minimal change autofluorescence precursor lesions was associated with faster GA enlargement rates compared with other precursor lesion classes.

Conclusions: Using image registration, we identified changes in autofluorescence images before the onset of GA. Decreased autofluorescence was the most common change, although minimal changes also were seen in one third of the images. Incident GA that arises from predominantly normal autofluorescence is associated with faster enlargement rates compared with GA arising from abnormal autofluorescence. Faster GA enlargement rates also were associated with incident GA size, area of surround abnormal autofluorescence, and presence of reticular pseudodrusen.