Novel Quantification Methods for Fluorescence to Detect Progression in Stargardt Disease

Overview

The purpose of this study is to utilize flavoprotein fluorescence and fundus autofluorescence to detect progression of Stargardt macular dystrophy in a pediatric population over the course of a year with the hope of aiding future therapeutic risk-benefit decisions and assessment of outcomes. Stargardt macular dystrophy is the most common of the juvenile-onset macular dystrophies. Despite determination of ABCA4 as the causative gene, clinicians have been challenged by variability in clinical phenotypes. Given the recent initiation of clinical trials to assess novel treatments (e.g. gene therapy), there is a need to identify patients with the worst prognosis. The investigators have observed that pediatric patients lose central visual function faster than their adult counterparts. Thus, they present an ideal cohort with which to determine the utility of novel modalities to detect early change. These include flavoprotein fluorescence, a new imaging technique for detecting mitochondrial dysfunction developed at the University of Michigan. Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) is another commonly utilized technique of evaluating hereditary eye diseases. The investigators have developed a novel means of quantifying FAF signatures that will allow documentation of severity as well as detection of progression.

This study will evaluate whether more sophisticated testing and analytic methodologies, including fundus autofluorescence (FAF) and a novel non-invasive method to measure retinal flavoprotein fluorescence (FPF) may be used to better predict Stargardt macular dystrophy progression and monitor treatment effects than conventional modalities such visual acuity and visual field. This method involves the use of novel statistical methods to assess the heterogeneity of fundus autofluorescence images. Participants will complete 3 visits to the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center. Each visit will take approximately 2.5 hours. The initial visit will include a routine clinical eye examination, measurement of best-corrected visual acuity, indirect ophthalmoscopy, microperimetry, frequency-domain optical coherence tomography, Goldmann visual fields, fundus flavoprotein fluorescence (FPF) imaging, and fundus autofluorescence (FAF) and fundus photography. Patients will return for evaluation at 6 and 12 months after their initial visit to repeat testing and imaging.