Clinical
Vol 3 No 5 • October/November 2012 • International Journal of Ophthalmic Practice
T
here are several techniques available for 
detecting and determining pathologies of the 
retina. A fundus camera is useful for visu-
alization and documentation of the retinal structure 
and there are several different types of cameras avail-
able on the market. Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) 
provides information about the fluorescence of the 
retina and the wellbeing of the retinal pigment epithe-
lium (RPE) (Bird, 2010). Although the retina has many 
fluorophores, the fluorescence mainly derives from 
lipofuscin (Delori et al, 1995). Excessive lipofuscin 
gives excessive autofluorescence (AF) and vice versa 
(Boulton, 2010). Lipofuscin
Lipofuscin is an ocular pigment and a by-product of 
intracellular metabolism in the photoreceptors and 
the RPE. It accumulates in the lysosomes in ageing 
cells in the RPE (Delori, 2010). Lipofuscin induces 
cell death by damaging the mitochondria in the cell 
(Saprunova et al, 2010). There are currently three 
different hypotheses about why lipofuscin levels may 
be abnormal: lysosomal dysfunction; dysfunctional 
autophagy (the process where molecules are trans-
ported to the lysosome); or cellular stress (Seehafer 
and Pearce, 2010). Lipofuscin is excited by certain 
wavelengths of light.