Table 1.
Impact of wAMD on QoL, treatment, and goals based on clinical assessments of wAMD severity
| Clinical assessment1 | QoL impact | Treatment goals |
|---|---|---|
| Mild | ||
| • VA*: 20/20–20/40 | • None to minimal impact on QoL; patients feel something is slightly wrong with their vision | • Eligible for treatment |
| • Some distortion | • Stabilization or improvement of VA possible | |
| • Detectable using OCT, funduscopy | ||
| Moderate to severe | ||
| • VA*: 20/50–20/200 | • One eye: QoL not greatly affected, but some patients feel anxiety for the other eye possibly developing AMD | • Eligible for treatment |
| • One eye: distance vision is still fairly good, since the other better eye helps with overall vision; however, still some difficulties (eg, writing or reading small print) | • Both eyes: QoL greatly affected | • Improvement of VA and maintenance of improved VA, maintaining QoL |
| • Both eyes: difficulty in daily activity, poor facial recognition, cannot read and write small print, letters, or bank statements | • For one eye, elimination of a central dark spot possible, and also may improve mental health by reducing anxiety for the other eye possibly developing AMD | |
| • Central dark spots (size is important; eg, absolute central scotoma) | ||
| Very severe | ||
| • VA*: <20/200 | • Severe | • Not eligible for those with a scar; clear atrophy of cells or clear eye damage (disease too advanced to see treatment effect) |
| • Darkness; cannot see anything in center vision from affected eye, difficulty driving and distinguishing color | ||
Note:
*
Snellen VA can be converted to decimal VA by dividing the numerator by the denominator (eg, 20/20 = 1; 20/40 = 0.5).
Abbreviations: wAMD, wet age-related macular degeneration; QoL, quality of life; VA, visual acuity; OCT, optical coherence tomography; AMD, age-related macular degeneration.