AREDS Simplified Severity Scale
Ophthalmology
Five-year risk of advanced macular degeneration, counted on the fingers of one hand.
How it is calculated
- Each eye scores one point for at least one large druse — 125 µm or more, about the width of a large vein where it crosses the disc margin — and one point for any pigment abnormality.
- The points are summed across both eyes, giving a scale from 0 to 4.
- Where neither eye has large drusen but both have intermediate drusen, that counts as a single point overall.
- An eye that already has advanced disease counts as two points, because the question the scale answers is the risk to the fellow eye.
- Approximate five-year risk of advanced macular degeneration in at least one eye: 0 points 0.5 per cent, 1 point 3 per cent, 2 points 12 per cent, 3 points 25 per cent, 4 points 50 per cent.
- These are the AREDS cohort's observed rates. They predate AREDS2 supplementation and modern anti-VEGF treatment.
References
- Ferris FL, Davis MD, Clemons TE, et al. A simplified severity scale for age-related macular degeneration: AREDS Report No. 18. Arch Ophthalmol 2005;123:1570-1574.
About these tools
OcuLearning Clinical Tools is part of an educational platform. These calculators are provided for learning and reference, and are not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment recommendation.