Prevalentie van leeftijdgebonden maculopathie bij ouderen; het ERGO-onderzoek

To determine the prevalence of age-related maculopathy in an elderly population in the Netherlands.

Design

Cross-sectional single-centre population based study.

Setting

Rotterdam Study research centre, Ommoord, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Methods

Fundus photographs of 6,251 participants of the Rotterdam Study, a single centre prospective follow-up study in persons aged 55 to 98 years, were examined for the presence of drusen, pigmentary abnormalities and atrophic or neovascular macular degeneration.

Results

The prevalence of one or more drusen of 63 µm or larger significantly increased from 40.8 in persons aged 55-64 year to 52.6 in those aged 85 years or older. Similarly, the prevalence of the following abnormalities increased significantly in these age categories: drusen of 125 µm or larger from 4.8 to 17.5, retinal pigment epithelial hypopigmentations from 3.5 to 9.0 and increased retinal pigment from 3.7 to 15.3. Atrophic or neovascular age-related macular degeneration was present in 1.7 of the total population. Atrophic agerelated macular degeneration increased significantly from 0.1 in persons aged 55-64 years to 3.7 in those aged 85 years or over. Neovascular age-related macular degeneration increased significantly from 0.1 to 7.4 in these age groups. No sex differences were observed for these lesions.

Conclusion

The prevalence of atrophic or neovascular macular degeneration was 1.7. In those aged 55 years or over, it increased strongly with age. It was similar in men and women. Neovascular macular degeneration was twice as frequent as atrophic macular degeneration. These findings suggest that age-related maculopathy may be less common in this European population than in similar populations in the USA.