Abstract
Purpose:
To analyze the role of both morphological and functional retinal parameters evaluating the efficacy of a long term intravitreal steroid implant.
Methods:
This prospective study included 12 eyes of 12 consecutive patients affected by Retinal Vein occlusion who underwent intravitreal implant of Ozurdex. Morphological examinations and functional assessments were evaluated at baseline and at day 30 and 90 after treatment. Morphological examination was performed by Spectral OCT (OTI, Toronto, Canada) evaluating macular retinal and choroidal thickness. Functional assessment included LogMAR visual acuity, retinal sensibility and fixation pattern using the microperimeter (MP1, Nidek Technologies, Padova, Italy).
Results:
Baseline morphological quantitative evaluation showed mean retinal thickness (RT, mean±standard deviation) of 430,00±295,13µm and choroidal thickness (CT) of 296,25±76,71µm; after treatment, at day 30 we found a RT of 201,43±27,34µm (p<0.05) and a CT of 238,57±39,34µm (p<0.05), at day 90 a RT of 326,67±210,79µm (p>0.05) and a CT of 256,67±30,55µm (p>0.05). Baseline functional evaluation showed mean visual acuity of 0,81 ± 0,66 LogMAR and retinal sensitivity of 6,16 ± 4,22 dB; after treatment, at day 30 we found 0,59±0,37 (p>0.05) and 8,23±3,42 dB (p<0.05); at day 90, 0,46±0,74 (p>0.05) and 7,06±4,66 dB (p<0.05). Fixation pattern improved significantly (p<0.05), showing a stable fixation in 4 of 12 patients (33%) at baseline, in 7 of 12 patients (58%) at day 30 and in 9 of 12 patients (75%) at day 90, suggesting a significative recovery on visual performances.
Conclusions:
Our study shows significative results on retinal thickness reduction, significantly related to visual function increase. Moreover, functional evaluation underlined the role of microperimetry (retinal sensibility and fixation pattern) to complete visual acuity examination for a better definition of the efficacy of the treatment. To be further investigated the role of choroid that showed a significative thickness reduction during the follow up not elsewhere documented in literature.
Keywords: 585 macula/fovea •
749 vascular occlusion/vascular occlusive disease •
550 imaging/image analysis: clinical