Symptoms or Warning Signs
Dry AMD Symptoms
Many patients with dry AMD may have no visual symptoms at all. Some patients will require more light to read, have difficulty adjusting between dark and light conditions, notice occasional blurring of vision or fluctuating vision, or notice frank loss of vision. Because AMD affects the macula, the symptoms are typically related to central vision tasks such as reading or driving. Peripheral vision is typically not affected.
Wet AMD Symptoms
Patients with wet AMD may have sudden, slowly, or rapidly progressive loss of vision. Leakage and bleeding from choroidal neovascularization typically causes changes in vision, although patients may not be aware of the changes because the other eye may see well. Therefore, it is important to test vision in each eye separately by covering one eye at a time when checking vision.
Some patients with advanced wet AMD may see flickering lights or formed images (an old dog, a familiar face, etc). Flickering lights may be due to chronic leakage in wet AMD. Seeing formed images is not unusual and is a brain response to macular disease.
An Amsler grid (an Amsler grid is a checkered pattern with a central dot in the middle of the pattern) allows a patient to check their vision one eye at a time to monitor for blurring or distortion that may signify wet AMD. Patients with progression of AMD may note changes on the Amsler grid, and if this occurs, they are requested to contact their ophthalmologist promptly.
