Abstract
Purpose :
Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD) causes severe vision impairment in aged individuals. Previous studies using color fundus photographs (CFP) have demonstrated presence of retinal structural abnormalities in nvAMD. In this study, we investigated the relationship between these CFP-derived biomarkers over time in nvAMD from the phase 2 Longitude trial (BP41783).
Methods :
Eligible patients from the trial were included. A total of 116 eyes across 116 subjects were evaluated at baseline and week 42. CFP and best-corrected visual acuity were evaluated at each visit. Fundus features such as drusen, hard exudates, hyperpigmentation, hemorrhages, fibrosis and atrophy were evaluated for their presence and severity.
Results :
Inter-rater agreements for drusen, hard exudates, hyperpigmentation, hemorrhages, fibrosis and atrophy were 90%, 96%, 92%, 92%, 91% and 99%, respectively. At baseline, atrophy was (r = 0.2, p = 0.03) associated with hyperpigmentation.
Drusen (r = 0.51), hard exudates (r = 0.39), hyperpigmentation (r = 0.37), hemorrhages (r = 0.31), fibrosis (r = 0.55), and atrophy (r = 0.49) at baseline were significant (p<0.001) predictors of their individual development, respectively at week 42. At week 42, drusen was significantly (r = 0.2, p = 0.03) associated with hard exudates. No other fundus features were significantly associated with each other at either baseline or week 42.
Conclusions :
In this study, we demonstrated that nvAMD features can be reliably assessed on color fundus photos. These appear to be profoundly altered both at baseline and in the course of the treatment timeline. We observed that individual fundus features at baseline were associated with progression at week 42. This study suggests that CFP may contribute to multimodal assessments of nvAMD features and its progression. Further longitudinal studies in nvAMD are required to study these retinal changes and their response to treatment over time.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.