Abstract
Purpose: :
Intravitreal pegaptanib administered every 6 weeks has provided improvements in visual acuity and central retinal thickness in an independent study in patients with BRVO. This case series presents the effectiveness of pegaptanib to treat macular edema secondary to retinal vascular occlusion in a clinical setting.
Methods: :
This was a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients with BRVO presenting to two retina practices and who were treated with intravitral injections of 0.3 mg pegaptanib sodium. Assessments included complete ocular examination, Snellen visual acuity (VA; converted to logMAR for analyses) and optical coherence tomography.
Results: :
To date, 11 eyes of 11 patients with BRVO received a mean of 4.5±2.7 intravitral injections of pegaptanib over a course of 6.8±5.6 months. Eight (73%) were female and 5 (45%) had hypertension. The mean VA improved from 0.68±0.25 (≈20/100) at baseline to 0.40± 0.34(≈20/50) at month 6, and mean center point thickness decreased from 326 microns to 254 microns; gains of ≥3 and ≥0 lines of vision occurred in 45% and 82% patients, respectively, and 91% lost <3 lines during 6 months of follow-up. Additional data will be provided.
Conclusions: :
In this small case series, promising visual and anatomical results were seen with pegaptanib in patients with BRVO. We emphasize that this and other relatively small studies are inadequately powered to address questions of systemic safety, which remain unanswered. Phase 3 trials are indicated to confirm the potential benefit of pegaptanib in patients.
Keywords: retina • vascular occlusion/vascular occlusive disease • vascular endothelial growth factor