Abstract
Purpose: :
Evaluate the efficacy of optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based intravitreal ranibizumab treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Methods: :
Study design was a retrospective interventional case series. The charts of consecutive patients who received intravitreal ranibizumab for subfoveal choroidal neovascularization due to AMD at a single clinical practice were reviewed. Eyes with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) worse than 20/400 and patients with less than 6 months of follow-up were excluded. OCT was performed at baseline and at monthly intervals for induction therapy. Injections were given monthly until no improvement was observed between successive OCTs. In the maintenance period, reinjections were performed for any recurrence of macular fluid on OCT. Follow-up in the maintenance period was extended based on individual responses to treatment. Main outcome measures were visual acuity and number of injections given.
Results: :
Twenty-five eyes of 22 patients with a mean follow-up period of 16 months (standard deviation [SD]=3.7) had a mean improvement of 1.6 lines of Snellen visual acuity (SD 2.9, 95% confidence interval 0.48 to 2.9, P = 0.008). Visual acuity was stable (≤3 lines of visual acuity lost) in 22 eyes (88%), of which nine eyes (36%) gained ≥3 lines. Three eyes (12%) lost ≥3 lines. A mean of 6.0 (SD 2.7) ranibizumab injections were given in the follow-up period.
Conclusions: :
When compared to previously reported studies of scheduled monthly intravitreal ranibizumab treatment, OCT-based intravitreal ranibizumab for neovascular AMD offered similarly excellent visual acuity results with reduced the number of injections.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • imaging/image analysis: clinical • vascular endothelial growth factor