This term refers to areas of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) atrophy accompanied by overlying photoreceptor loss and varying degrees of choriocapillaris/choroidal loss. The areas under the atrophy are often hyperreflective due to increased signal intensity, as less light is lost to the RPE. A notable loss of the external limiting membrane and the ellipsoid zone (EZ) is common.
*It is important to recognize that the term choroidal atrophy is a different term used to refer to isolated choroidal thinning without loss of the RPE/photoreceptors (not shown here).