The external limiting membrane in early-onset Stargardt disease.

Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci

Department of Ophthalmology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States Department of Pathology & Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States.

Published: August 2014

Purpose: To describe pathologic changes of the external limiting membrane (ELM) in young patients with early-onset Stargardt (STGD1) disease.

Methods: Twenty-six STGD1 patients aged younger than 20 years with confirmed disease-causing adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette, subfamily A, member 4 (ABCA4) alleles and 30 age-matched unaffected individuals were studied. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), fundus autofluorescence (AF), and color fundus photography (CFP) images, as well as full-field electroretinograms were obtained and analyzed for one to four visits in each patient.

Results: The ELM in all patients exhibited a distinct thickening that was not observed in unaffected individuals. In addition, accumulations of reflective deposits were noted in the outer nuclear layer in every patient. Four patients exhibited a concave protuberance or bulging of a thickened and hyperreflective ELM band within the fovea containing preserved photoreceptors. Longitudinal SD-OCT data in several patients revealed the persistence of this ELM abnormality over a period of time (1-4 years). Furthermore, the edges of the inner segment ellipsoid band appeared to recede earlier than the ELM band in active lesions.

Conclusions: Structural changes seen in the ELM of this cohort may reflect a gliotic response to cellular stress at the photoreceptor level in early-onset STGD1.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4184384PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/iovs.14-15126DOI Listing

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