Indocyanine green angiography in Stargardt's flavimaculatus.

PURPOSE: We studied the indocyanine green videoangiographic characteristics of eyes in patients with Stargardt's flavimaculatus and fluorescein angiographic evidence of a dark choroid.
METHODS: Affected individuals underwent ophthalmic examination and fluorescein angiographic examination. Indocyanine green videoangiography was performed on eight patients with classic Stargardt's flavimaculatus. Two additional asymptomatic patients with mild manifestations of Stargardt's flavimaculatus, both of whom were related to one patient with the classic phenotype, were also examined with indocyanine green videoangiography.
RESULTS: Choroidal detail was evident in all patients examined with indocyanine green videoangiography, and varying degrees of choroidal vascular closure were documented in the maculas of eight patients. Retinal pigment epithelial flecks were found to block indocyanine green videoangiographic fluoresence progressively. Late indocyanine green videoangiographic imaes frequently showed retinal pigment epithelial involvement in areas of retina thought to be uninvolved clinically and by fluorescein angiography. Peripapillary crescents of hypofluorescence, which in some patients were not noted clinically or by fluorescein angiography, were observed in all ten patients examined with indocyanine green videoangiography. In one asymptomatic patient, retinal pigment epithelial flecks could be identified only with indocyanine green videoangiography.
CONCLUSIONS: Indocyanine green videoangiography in conjunction with fluorescein angiography can be a valuable tool in the recognition and further understanding of Stargardt's flavimaculatus.