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Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a serious retinal disease. It is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in older adults that cannot be reversed. The macula is the part of the eye’s retina that enables sharp, central vision needed for close work, such as reading and writing, for driving and for recognizing faces.

An estimated 6.5% of people have age-related macular degeneration. At a particular stage, called neovascular, age-related macular degeneration increases from 0.04%in 50-year-olds, to 2.79% in 80-year-olds, to 10.49% in 90-year-olds. In Ontario, physicians who specialize in eye diseases use optical coherence tomography (OCT) regularly to find out whether patients have age-related macular degeneration.

Optical coherence tomography is a light-based imaging technique that lets physicians see the retina and evaluate how the disease changes or responds to treatment over time. Optical coherence tomography has been key to monitoring age-related macular degeneration and other retinal disorders. It is fast and gives clear pictures of the macula, even when eye is moving. Optical coherence tomography also gives information about blood vessels forming in the eye and on how thick the whole retina has grown.