Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the effect of intravitreal ranibizumab injection on the retina and choroid in patients with macular edema secondary to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO).
Methods :
A prospective interventional study was conducted at Nagasaki University, Japan, where treatment-naive patients with macular edema secondary to CRVO were recruited. Changes in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central retinal thickness (CRT), subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), and retinal blood flow levels were measured at baseline and at 1 and 3 months after intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) initiation. Retinal blood flow levels were measured via LSFG-NAVITM (Softcare, Fukuoka, Japan) and evaluated using the mean blur rate (MBR) at the optic disc.
Results :
Thirty eyes of 30 patients were included from February 2014 through October 2016. One patient with normal tension glaucoma was excluded. The mean age was 71.1±10.2 years. The ischemic type accounted for 8 eyes and the non-ischemic type for 21 eyes. BCVA (logMAR) significantly improved at 1 month (0.56±0.50) and 3 months (0.67±0.58) after IVR from its baseline value (0.84±0.59) (P<0.01). CRT also significantly improved at 1 month (301±110 μm) and 3 months (467±355 μm) after IVR from its baseline value (747±301 μm) (P<0.01). The mean SFCT of CRVO eyes was 265±104 μm, which was significantly thicker than that of fellow eyes (231±86 μm) at baseline (P<0.01). The mean SFCT significantly decreased to 227±93 μm at 1 month and 231±99 μm at 3 months, and there was no significant difference compared with fellow eyes. Compared to baseline (100%), MBR at 1 month (112%) and 3 months (119%) after IVR was significantly increased (P<0.05). BCVA showed a negative correlation with the MBR at all time points (P<0.01). The average number of injections in 3 months was 2.3 times.
Conclusions :
Ranibizumab is an effective treatment for macular edema secondary to CRVO, resulting in improved visual acuity and retinal thickness, decreased choroidal thickness and increased blood flow. With increased blood flow, visual acuity was good at baseline and after IVR.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.