Aqueous flare in eyes with age-related macular degeneration.

It is unknown whether aqueous flare is increased in eyes with prominent fundus lesions other than choroidal malignant melanoma. Therefore, we studied the aqueous flare in eyes with age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) using the laser flare-cell meter. Forty-three eyes of 27 patients with ARMD (age 67.0 +/- 14.0 years, range 43-81 years), and 41 healthy eyes of 41 randomly selected age- and gender-matched control patients (age 68.9 +/- 9.8 years, range 43-89 years) were examined. The macular degeneration was diagnosed and classified using fluorescein angiograms. Flare values in eyes with ARMD were 0.28 +/- 0.18 mg/ml, being significant in comparison with the control (0.12 +/- 0.05 mg/ml). The differences among the subgroups of ARMD were not statistically significant (P > 0.5): macular drusenosis (0.21 +/- 0.05 mg/ml, n = 6), subretinal neovascularization without marked subretinal hemorrhage (0.27 +/- 0.15 mg/ml, n = 19), subretinal neovascularization with marked subretinal hemorrhage (0.29 +/- 0.24 mg/ml, n = 7), and disciform scar (0.31 +/- 0.24 mg/ml, n = 9).