Abstract
Purpose :
To report on the worldwide distribution of macular neovascularization type 3 (MNV3).
Methods :
Patients with treatment-naïve macular neovascularization derived from different international nAMD clinical trials at Vienna Reading Center (VRC) were included. The type of MNV lesion was classified into two groups: MNV 1/2/mixed and MNV3 using multimodal imaging methods. The percentage of MNV3 eyes of the total MNV eyes was calculated for each participating country and region. In addition, the correlation between the percentage of MNV3 and life expectancy in each participating country was measured.
Results :
Our analysis revealed 4708 nAMD eyes from 47 countries (north America:3, south America:6, Europe:28, Asia:8, Africa:1, Australia:1). 572 (12.1%) eyes had MNV3. In north America the highest percentage of MNV3 was noticed in Canada (17.6%) followed by USA (11.5%). In Europe the highest percentage (23.4%) was found in Austria and the lowest (4.3%) in Russia. The percentage of MNV3 in western European region was higher than that of eastern region (18.5% vs. 9.2%) (p<0.001) and in the mediterranean region was greater than that of non-mediterranean region (17.2% vs. 12.5%) (p=0.002). The percentage in east Asia and south America was low (5.3%) and (9.4%) respectively. A moderate positive correlation between the percentage of MNV3 and life expectancy was found (r: 0.68) (p<0.001).
Conclusions :
MNV3 is not equally distributed across the world. It significantly occurs more in the western and mediterranean regions. This characteristic distribution could be explained by the higher life expectancy and non-Asian ethnicity. This unique distribution should be considered in nAMD clinical trial to ensure a meaningful appearance of MNV3 patients.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.