Retinal oxygen saturation, vessel diameter and flicker response in eyes with different subtypes of neovascular age-related macular degeneration during aflibercept treatment

Abstract

Purpose : To evaluate the effect of intravitreal aflibercept monotherapy on arterial and venous oxygen saturation, retinal vessel diameter and flicker response in patients with treatment naive various subtypes of exsudative maculopathy.

Methods : Forty-four eyes of consecutive treatment-naïve patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV, n=12), hemorrhagic choroidal neovascularization (hCNV, n=12), pigment epithelium detachment (PED, n=9) and retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP, n=11) were included in this prospective analysis. All patients received three initial aflibercept 2mg/0.05ml injections (Eylea®) in monthly intervals (loading phase) and were subsequently treated until month 12. Measurements of arterial and venous oxygen saturation, retinal vessel diameters and flicker response were performed using the Dynamic Vessel Analyzer (DVA; IMEDOS, Jena, Germany).

Results : Patients received a mean of 6±2 intravitreal injection during the 12 months study period. Mean visual acuity was 65±16 and improved to 68±17 at final follow-up (p=0.4). Significant reduction of central retinal thickness resulted from 531±179 to 354±134µm (p<0.01). Arterial and venous diameters were 94±22 /131±19µm at baseline, 93±19 /130±18µm at month 6 and 95±18 /130±16µm at month 12 (p=0.9/ p=0.7; p=0.8/ p=0.9). The course of total arterial and venous oxygen saturation during treatment was 95±2 /78±7% at baseline, 93±3 /78±7% at month 6 and 95±2 /81±7% at month 12 (p=0.8/ p=0.003; p=0.2 /p=0.9). Flicker measurements showed mean arterial change of 1.2±5 at baseline, 2.7±4 at month 6 and 2.8±5 at month 12 (p=0.2) while a venous change of 4.5± at baseline, 5.0± at month 6 and 4.8± at final follow-up was observed.

Conclusions : During intravitreal aflibercept treatment oxygen saturation, vessel diameter and flicker response was stable in patients with different subtypes of exsudative maculopathy.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.