| Drusen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Macular soft drusen in the right eye of a 70-year-old male. | |
| Specialty | Ophthalmology  |
Drusen, from the German word for node or geode (singular, "Druse"), are tiny yellow or white accumulations of extracellular material that build up between Bruch's membrane and the retinal pigment epithelium of the eye. The presence of a few small ("hard") drusen is normal with advancing age, and most people over 40 have some hard drusen.[1] However, the presence of larger and more numerous drusen in the macula is a common early sign of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
- ^ Silvestri G, Williams MA, McAuley C, Oakes K, Sillery E, Henderson DC, Ferguson S, Silvestri V, Muldrew KA (2012). "Drusen prevalence and pigmentary changes in Caucasians aged 18-54 years". Eye (Lond). 26 (10): 1357–62. doi:10.1038/eye.2012.165. PMC 3470061. PMID 22899005.