What Coats Disease and Age-Related Macular Degeneration Have in Common

Coats disease is a rare pediatric retinal vascular disorder, usually isolated to 1 eye, that can cause severe vision loss or even a blind painful eye when untreated or treated late. In the past decade or so, management has been focused on multimodal imaging modalities (ie, optical coherence tomography [OCT] and fluorescein angiography) and combination therapy (ie, cryotherapy, laser therapy combined with steroid medication and anti –vascular endothelial growth factor agents) in an effort to improve vision. Assessing recent management and outcome trends in Coats disease is difficult, because the disease is uncommon, and most ophthalmologists, even those specializing in pediatric or retina care, will not see many patients with this disease in their practice. However, it appears that multimodal imaging and combination therapy are leading to more cases of globe salvage in Coats disease than before.
Source: JAMA Ophthalmology - Category: Opthalmology Source Type: research