Corneal biochemical analysis and relationship between as needed intravitreous anti-VEGF injections in patients with Angioid Streaks

Abstract

Purpose : To evaluate the corneal biochemical characteristics measured with Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) and Corvis ST (CST) in patients with Angioid streaks (AS), and to investigate their effects on the activity of AS though number of intravitreal anti-VEGF injections.

Methods : 29 eyes of 15 patients with AS (68.9 ± 9.6: mean ± standard deviation years old) and 30 eyes of 30 normative subjects (73.6 ± 7.7 years old) were enrolled in this study. The number of the intravitreal anti-VEGF injection to control secondary choroidal neovascularization (CNV) were counted for 5.8 ± 2.5 years. ORA and CST measurements were carried out three times and average values of these ORA and CST parameters were calculated; with ORA: corneal hysteresis (CH) and corneal resistance factor (CRF), and with CST: central corneal thickness: CCT, DA ratio, Integrated Radius, ARTh, SP-A1 and CBI. These parameters were compared between AS and control groups, and then, the relationship between corneal biochemical properties and the number of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection needed per year in eyes with AS was investigated, using the linear mixed model.
All study protocols adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board of the University of Tokyo Hospital.

Results : Average number of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection in eyes with AS was 1.3 ± 1.5 times per years. There was no significant difference in all of the eight ORA and CST parameters between the AS and control groups, except for significantly thicker [A1] CCT in AS group (p = 0.042). In AS group, lower CH, higher CRF, higher DA ratio were associated with the increased frequency of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection per year.

Conclusions : There was no significant difference between ORA and CST measured corneal biochemical characteristics between AS and control groups. CH, CRF and DA ratio were associated with the activity of AS, as evaluated by the number of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection to control secondary CNV.

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