Reticular macular lesions: a review of the phenotypic hallmarks and their clinical significance

• Published in: Clinical & experimental ophthalmology Vol. 42; no. 9; pp. 865 - 874
• Main Authors: Saade, Celine, Smith, Roland T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2014; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Fluorescein Angiography; Humans; Macular degeneration; Mortality; Multimodal Imaging; Older people; Phenotype; prognosis; Retina - pathology; Retinal Drusen - complications; Retinal Drusen - diagnosis; Terminology as Topic; Tomography, Optical Coherence; retinal drusen/complications; multimodal imaging; prognosis; retinal drusen/diagnosis; macular degeneration
• ISSN: 1442-6404; 1442-9071
• DOI: 10.1111/ceo.12353

Reticular macular lesions, also known as ‘reticular macular disease’, ‘reticular drusen’, ‘reticular pseudodrusen’, or ‘subretinal drusenoid deposits’, are a pattern of lesions commonly found in age‐related macular degeneration and best visualized using at least two imaging techniques in combination. Reticular lesions have four stages of progression observable on spectral domain optical coherence tomography, but they do not show the usual signs of regression of soft drusen (calcification and pigment changes). Furthermore, reticular lesions correlate histologically with subretinal drusenoid deposits localized between the retinal pigment epithelium and the inner segment ellipsoid band. Reticular lesions are most commonly seen in older age groups of female patients with age‐related macular degeneration and are usually bilateral. They are not clearly associated with known age‐related macular degeneration genes and are highly associated with late‐stage age‐related macular degeneration and an increased mortality rate. They are also associated with alterations in the neural retina and choroid.