How is age-related macular degeneration diagnosed?

How is age-related macular degeneration diagnosed?

Because AMD rarely causes symptoms in its early stages, annual eye examinations are key to detecting the disease and starting treatments when they’re most effective. During an eye exam, your eye healthcare provider checks for changes to the retina and macula. You may get one or more of these tests:

• Visual field test: An Amsler grid has a grid of straight lines with a large dot in the center. Your healthcare provider may ask you to identify lines or sections on the grid that look blurry, wavy or broken. A lot of distortion may indicate that you have AMD or the disease is worsening. You can use this visual field test at home to monitor your vision.
• Dilated eye exam: Eye drops dilate, or widen, your pupils. Once your eyes are dilated, your healthcare provider uses a special lens to look inside your eyes.
• Fluorescein angiography: Your healthcare provider injects a yellow dye called fluorescein into a vein in your arm. A special camera tracks the dye as it travels through blood vessels in the eye. The photos can reveal any leakage under the macula.
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT): This imaging machine takes detailed images of the back of the eye, including the retina and macula. Optical coherence tomography isn’t invasive or painful. You simply look into a lens while the machine takes pictures.
• Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA): This diagnostic tool uses laser light reflection (instead of fluorescein dye) and the OCT scanning device. It takes just a few moments and produces 3D images of blood flow through the eye.