Sophie Chen '23

Major: Religious Studies

Bio: Sophie Chen was born and raised in New York, NY, and will graduate with her Bachelor's degree this May. After graduating from Fordham, she intends to pursue a medical degree and continue engaging in scientific research in her areas of interest.

Title of Research: Age-related macular degeneration and valvular heart disease

Mentor: Roland Theodore Smith, MD, Ph.D., Mount Sinai Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology

Abstract: A strong association between subretinal drusenoid deposits (SDDs) in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and vascular disease was found in a study of 200 intermediate AMD (iAMD) subjects (Ledesma-Gil et al., BMJO, 2022). We report an expanded collection of valvular, non-atherosclerotic heart disease (VHD) cases from that study acquired from subjects’ medical records for post-hoc analysis, linking VHD severity on transthoracic echocardiograms (TTEs) with SDDs. TTEs were available for 29 of the initial 200 subjects (mean=80.6±9.4 years old; 15 females) and classified as SDD (with or without soft drusen) or non-SDD (drusen only). Subjects with valve repair surgery were excluded. TTE data included the Cardiac Index (CI) and the presence/grading of VHD subtypes. VHD was divided into trace or less VHD and mild or greater VHD. Associations between SDD status and VHD severity were calculated by a chi-square test. Mean CIs in SDD and non-SDD groups were compared by a one-tailed t-test. Mild or greater VHD was significantly associated with SDD versus non-SDD groups, 68.4% and 30%, respectively, p=0.048. For the 20 subjects with adequate TTE data, 14 with SDDs had significantly lower mean CI (L/min/m2) than the six without SDDs (1.81±0.34 versus 2.42±0.54, p=0.031). No significant correlations existed between SDDs and VHD severity or subtype (stenosis or regurgitation) in the four valves. In this sub-study of iAMD subjects with VHD and echocardiographic metrics of cardiac dysfunction, SDD presence was associated with VHD, greater degrees of valvular dysfunction, and lower CI, suggesting poor systemic perfusion secondary to valvular disease as a mechanism for SDDs.