Salient features and management options of macular telangiectasia type 2: a review and update

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Initially thought to be a retinal vasculopathy macular telangiectasia (MacTel) type 2 is now believed to be a primary neuroglial disorder with secondary vascular changes. To date there is no evidence for an effective treatment of nonproliferative MacTel type 2. Patients with proliferative MacTel type 2 with decreasing visual function may benefit from intravitreal injection of vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors.

Areas covered: A medline search using Pubmed and google scholar was conducted to identify research studies providing an overview of epidemiology, clinical features, imaging characteristics and structure-function correlation, with an emphasis on currently available treatment options for MacTel type 2.

Expert commentary: The nature of the initiating event in MacTel type 2 remains obscure. Identification of a genetic basis would be a great advance but has so far been elusive. It is likely that derangement of outer retinal metabolism plays a major role.

KEYWORDS:

• Macular telangiectasia
• MacTel
• treatment
• Muller cell
• imaging
• vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
• optical coherence tomography (OCT)
• neurodegeneration
• retina

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

No funding to declare.