Dark Adaptation (DA) in eyes with SDDs22

 

  • Impairments in dark adaptation increases with age, severity of AMD, worse visual acuity, and presence of SDDs
  • SDDs often cause deep impairment to dark adaptation and this impairment occurs earlier in the AMD diagnosis with SDDs than AMD with soft drusen
    • Studies show a deep delay in dark adaptation, one showed that 80% of eyes with SDDs took >40 minutes to return to baseline sensitivity levels22
  • DA has become more accessible in clinical practice since 2013 and can be utilized both as a screening for AMD and SDDs or to monitor functional progression over time

Severe functional delay with often benign appearing macula is the hallmark of early SDDs. Normal time to adapt is <6.5 minutes with AdaptDx instrument. This patient is taking >20 minutes due to the presence of SDDs