what is involutional foveal thinning?

[promethiusII]

hi - I can't seem to get my questions answered. On the eye doc forum I was basically told that there was no point asking my questions because the answers would worry me (!) and I should just follow my docs advice. Why bother having these forums if you don't want to provide the info that people are looking for.

I'll keep it simple: can someone please tell me what involutional foveal thinning is, what causes it, and what things in an OCT one looks for to indicate whether itis there?

thanks much

[promethiusII]

hi - i do not have early macular degeneration. In the other eye, I do have partial thickness macular hole with schissis and idiopathic epiretininal membane  (no PVD or known vitreo retinal seperation). I was reading a med journal article on  early predicitve signs in the fellow eye and one of three things listed was "involutional foveal thinning". I am a prof of higher level vision and am also unfamiliar with this term. In my fellow eye, on macular thickness OCT scans I appear to have abnormally thin macula (I am 49 years old)  and had been wondering if this is the same as ths involutinal foveal thinning, the predictor that the fellow eye will be affected.  I am trying to find the reference, but I went thru about 20 articles that days and its going to take a while to find again.  

thanks.

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

I am not sure what they mean by this term.  Do you have early macular degeneration?

Dr. O.