Clinical Background¶

Age-related macular degeneration, abbreviated as AMD, is a degenerative disorder in the macular region. It mainly occurs in people older than 45 years old and its incidence rate is even higher than diabetic retinopathy in the elderly.  

The etiology of AMD is not fully understood, which could be related to multiple factors, including genetics, chronic photodestruction effect, and nutritional disorder. AMD is classified into Dry AMD and Wet AMD. Dry AMD (also called nonexudative AMD) is not neovascular. It is characterized by progressive atrophy of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). In the late stage, drusen and the large area of atrophy could be observed under ophthalmoscopy. Wet AMD (also called neovascular or exudative AMD), is characterized by active neovascularization under RPE, subsequently causing exudation, hemorrhage, and scarring, and will eventually cause irreversible damage to the photoreceptors and rapid vision loss if left untreated.

An early diagnosis of AMD is crucial to treatment and prognosis. Fundus photo is one of the basic examinations. The current dataset is composed of AMD and non-AMD (myopia, normal control, etc.) photos. Typical signs of AMD that can be found in these photos include drusen, exudation, hemorrhage, etc. 

Acknowledgement¶

Thanks for iChallenge-AMD study group.

iChallenge-AMD study group includes:

Xintong Jiang;

Nuhui Li;

Yingjie Li;

Renchun Xia;

Jian Xiong;

Chunman Yang;

Rui Zhang.

Attention: Group members are ranked by alphabetical order of last name; if the last names are the same, then they will be sorted by alphabetical order of first name. If you have any questions, please contact us.