Geographic atrophy progression secondary to age-related macular degeneration: Five years of follow-up

Purpose To study the progression of geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration over a five-year follow-up. Methods Eyes with GA included to assess demographic data, yearly optical coherence tomography (OCT) findings and the GA growth rate on infra-red (IR) images. Results A total of 41 eyes of 29 patients were included with a mean age of 81.76 +/- 6.37 at baseline, and 65.51% were females. Over five years, there was a significant increase in the mean GA area from 8.44 +/- 8.98 mm(2) to 13.32 +/- 10.07 mm(2) (P < 0.001), with an annual growth rate of 1.14 +/- 0.78 mm(2). The annual growth rates in females were slightly higher compared to males (1.29 +/- 0.89 mm(2) vs 0.96 +/- 0.49 mm(2), p = 0.569), and in smokers was slightly higher than non-smokers (1.35 +/- 0.85 mm(2) vs 0.94 +/- 0.66 mm(2), p = 0.100). Larger GA areas at the baseline showed higher GA progression in mm(2) per year (P = 0.04). Smaller GA areas and fovea-spared GA at the baseline exhibited a larger percentage increase (P < 0.001 and P = 0.015, respectively). There was a lower GA progression rate in eyes with outer retinal tubulations (ORT) (P = 0.027), yet no significant correlation was found between GA progression and other OCT features. Conclusions Smaller, fovea-sparing GA eyes experienced a more substantial proportional increase over five years. Also, The presence of ORT was associated with a slower rate of GA progression. Additionally, we observed a trend of faster GA growth in smokers and female genders.