The following is a summary of ‘’Optical coherence tomography angiography biomarkers in a bi-monthly maintenance dosing aflibercept in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration,” published in the July 2023 issue of Ophthalmology by Park et al.

Researchers performed a retrospective study to assess the associations between swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) parameters and clinical outcomes in individuals with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) who received a bimonthly intravitreal aflibercept treatment. In this prospective, single-arm interventional study, 33 treatment-naïve nAMD patients were enrolled. 

The eyes underwent three monthly aflibercept injections followed by five bi-monthly regimens over a total period of 50 weeks. Structural parameters such as central subfield thickness (CST) and 5 mm pigment epithelial detachment (PED) volume, along with microvascular parameters including macular neovascularization (MNV) area, vessel density (VD), and vessel length density (VLD), were measured before and 1 week after each treatment. Patients achieving a gain of >5 letters in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) showed notable reductions in VD and VLD during the loading phase. 

Those without recurrent or persistent fluid during the maintenance phase exhibited significant reductions in CST and 5 mm PED volume after the initial injection. The decrease in mean VD during loading phase correlated significantly with final BCVA (r = -0.820, P= 0.004), while the decrease in mean VLD during loading phase correlated significantly with BCVA improvement (r = -0.726, P= 0.017). Study concluded that early changes in OCTA and OCT parameters can predict clinical outcomes in nAMD.

Source: bmcophthalmol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12886-023-03039-4