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March 2017

Renaming of Acute Posterior Multifocal Placoid Pigment Epitheliopathy (APMPPE) to Acute Multifocal Placoid Choroidopathy (AMP-C)

Author Affiliations
  • 1Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
  • 2Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Iowa City
JAMA Ophthalmol. 2017;135(3):185. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2016.5325

Should acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy be renamed?—Yes.

The pathophysiology of acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy (APMPPE) has long been a subject of controversy. The condition was named in 1968 by Gass,1 who described patients presenting with multifocal, yellow-white subretinal lesions. He believed that the condition primarily affected the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) because visible lesions were flat and resolved rapidly, leaving changes in the RPE without observable changes in the choroid. However, increasing evidence implicates the choroid as the primary site of pathology and also demonstrates that choroidal involvement can extend to the periphery, and is not exclusively posterior.

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