EDNA

“Wet” or neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is a leading cause of sight loss in older people.

EDNA, which is a diagnostic accuracy study, aims to find out the best test(s), and how often patients should be tested, to reliably detect the start of nAMD with high specificity and sensitivity. The study is funded by the NIHR HTA Programme.

We are evaluating five non-invasive diagnostic tests which are easily performed and routinely carried out in the NHS secondary care setting and which fall into two groups; functional and morphological.

The functional tests are visual acuity, Amsler test and self-reported quality of sight. The morphological tests are fundus examination and optical coherence tomography (OCT). We will compare these test results with a reference standard measurement of a fluorescein angiogram (FFA).

We enrolled 562 patients attending eye clinics in NHS hospitals across the UK who had a recent diagnosis of nAMD in one eye only and we will monitor the unaffected eye during routine clinic appointments for three years.

The primary outcome will be the sensitivity and specificity of the five index tests for the diagnosis of nAMD.

The study is led by Professor Usha Chakravarthy based at Queens University Belfast

For more information please see the EDNA Study Website

Contacts

• CHaRT email; chart@abdn.ac.uk

Status

Publications

Banister K, Cook JA, Scotland G, Azuara-Blanco A, Goulão B, Heimann H, et al. Non-invasive testing for early detection of neovascular macular degeneration in unaffected second eyes of older adults: EDNA diagnostic accuracy study. Health Technol Assess 2022;26(8)