A recent statistical review of patients with age-related macular degeneration that evaluated the characteristics of preferred retinal locus (PRL) as well as the association between PRLs and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). The most frequent location of a PRL was the nasal quadrant and in the left visual field of patients.

The retrospective study included 72 patients (144 eyes) who had their PRLs evaluated monocularly with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope. The PRL was most often located in the nasal retinal quadrant (29.2%). When the locations were checked binocularly, the PRLs were assigned to the same part of the visual field in 68.3% of the eyes—the left visual field in both eyes as based on the scotoma.

Researchers found that fixation stability was positively correlated with BCVA and visual acuity was better in patients with more stable PRLs. Preferred retinal loci were more unstable under the following conditions: (1) the lesion had a large surface area; (2) the scar had large vertical and horizontal dimensions; (3) the PRL was located far from the fovea; and (4) the PRL was located far from the edge of the lesion.

The study concluded that a better understanding of mechanisms of PRL localization and the visual conditions of patients with different types of PRLs will enable design of more convenient and efficient vision rehabilitation and low vision-corrective devices for treating patients with central scotoma.