Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial |
Professional items | World psychology | |Classification and
external resources| |OMIM||126700 126600 611040 603075 134370|
Drusen (singular, "druse") are tiny yellow or white
accumulations of extracellular material that build up in Bruch's
membrane of the eye. The presence of a few small ("hard") drusen
is normal with advancing age, and most people over 40 have some
hard drusen. However, the presence of larger and more numerous
drusen in the macula is a common early sign of age-related
macular degeneration (AMD). Drusen associated with aging and
macular degeneration are distinct from another clinical entity,
optic disc drusen, which is present on the optic nerve head.
Both age-related drusen and optic disc drusen can be observed by
ophthalmoscopy. On CT scans of the orbits or head, calcification
at the head of the optic nerve without change in size of globe
strongly suggests drusen in a middle-age or elderly patient.
Whether drusen promote AMD or ar