Age Related Macular Degeneration - Solid Retinal Pigment Epithelial Detachment

You should look at the Normal Retina photo first for comparison. In this photo of a patient with dry macular degeneration, the waste deposits under the macula, called drusen, have grouped together into a confluent mass with an overlying pigmented figure. The name for this is a solid pigment epithelial detachment (PED), as opposed to a serous PED, in which there is fluid under the pigment epithelial layer. Over time, such a lesion may convert into wet macular degeneration with an abnormal blood vessel growing into the waste material, or the cells may die and fall out, leaving geographic atrophy of the pigment epithelium.