Baseline Characteristics of the Fellow Eye in Patients with Wet Age-related Macular Degeneration: Post-Hoc Analysis of the VIEW Studies

Abstract

Purpose: Patients’ perception of their visual function relies primarily on the visual acuity in the better-seeing eye. In this analysis, the baseline characteristics of fellow eyes of patients enrolled in the VIEW 1 and VIEW 2 studies are described.

Methods: Two double-masked, multicenter, parallel-group, active-controlled, randomized trials (VIEW 1 and VIEW 2) were conducted to compare intravitreal aflibercept injections administered every 4 weeks or every 8 weeks after 3 monthly doses vs ranibizumab every 4 weeks in the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD). Pooled post-hoc analyses were conducted to analyze the baseline characteristics of the fellow eyes for 2412 patients.

Results: The majority of fellow eyes had signs of AMD at baseline, with drusen present in nearly all fellow eyes. Overall, 34.9% of these eyes showed signs of prior choroidal neovascularization. Lens status of fellow eyes was similar to study eyes, with pseudophakia seen in 34.0% and 37.6% of fellow eyes and study eyes, respectively. Mean baseline visual acuity was 65.3 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letters in fellow eyes compared to 53.8 ETDRS letters in study eyes. Severe visual impairment (<36 ETDRS letters) was observed in 16.7% of fellow eyes versus 12.4% of study eyes. Lack of visual impairment (>80 letters) was seen in 33.2% versus 0.2% for fellow eyes and study eyes, respectively.

Conclusions: Despite better mean visual acuity, a significant proportion of fellow eyes had severe visual impairment at study outset, with most fellow eyes showing baseline AMD. Ongoing analyses will elucidate the effects of intravitreal aflibercept injection in the study eye on fellow eyes among patients in the VIEW studies.

Keywords: 412 age-related macular degeneration • 748 vascular endothelial growth factor • 609 neovascularization