Purpose: We describe the clinical and genetic characteristics of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in eyes with choroidal vascular hyperpermeability (CVH).
Methods: This cross-sectional study consisted of 438 consecutive patients who underwent fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography for macular disease. We used the genotypes of 1576 age-related macular degeneration (AMD) cases and 3248 general population controls as reference groups for genetic association analyses.
Results: Of 871 eyes (438 patients) examined, CVH was found in 227 eyes (26.1%). Of these 227 eyes, 52 (22.6%) had CNV in the macular area. The proportion of patients with drusen and the choroidal thickness were not different between eyes with and without CNV, after adjusting for age (P = 0.21 and 0.95). Of the 52 eyes with CNV, 51 had type 1 CNV and only one eye had pure type 2 CNV. Of the 51 eyes with type 1 CNV, polypoidal lesions were observed in 17 eyes (33.3%). Genotype distributions of ARMS2 (A69S) and CFH (I62V) in patients with CVH and type 1 CNV significantly differed from those of AMD cases (P = 0.0014 and 0.0098, respectively), but not from general population controls (P = 0.33 and 0.82, statistical power of 88.5% and 72.9%, respectively).
Conclusions: In patients with CVH, type 1 CNV may occur frequently and sometimes accompanies type 2 CNV or polypoidal lesions. In terms of ARMS2 and CFH, genetic background of patients with CVH and type 1 CNV was different from those with AMD, but rather similar to the general Japanese population.
Keywords: AMD; CSC; choroidal vascular hyperpermeability; genetics; type 1 CNV.
Copyright 2014 The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc.