Senile mecular degeneration. A clinicopathologic correlation of two cases with neovascularization beneath the retinal pigment epithelium.

The histopathologic findings in two cases of senile macular degeneration were correlated with the premortem clinical studies, from the onset in both cases and through the disciform stage in one case. In case 2, the postmortem eyes were obtained only one month after ophthalmoscopic, fluorescein angiographic, and fundus photographic studies were performed, all on the same day. Our report not only adds to the few clinicopathologic correlations of the lesions in senile macular degeneration reported in the literature, but also presents the first reconstruction to scale of subretinal pigment epithelial (sub-RPE) neovascularization. Our results confirm the diagnosis of sub-RPE neovascularization and serous detachment of the retinal pigment epithelium. Drusen were correlated as to number and general location but not individually. Serous detachment of the neurosensory retina was found histopathologically but not clinically.