[Assessment of the quality of life in patients with age-related macular degeneration 1 year after photodynamic therapy]

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate quality of life(QOL) in patients who underwent photodynamic therapy (PDT) for subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and to clarify factors influencing QOL.

Methods: 77 patients who had undergone PDT for subfoveal CNV of AMD were interviewed to evaluate QOL within 1 week before PDT, and 1 year after PDT. Subscale QOL scores were calculated and compared at these two time points. Factors related to QOL 1 year after PDT were evaluated. Factors included clinical findings in eyes which underwent PDT, condition of contralateral eyes, and family composition. QOL was also evaluated for patients whose visual acuity was improved (> or = logMAR 0.3)1 year after PDT.

Results: Subscale scores for activities associated with near vision (p = 0.03), mental health (p = 0.01), and role limitation (p = 0.04) improved 1 year after PDT. The only factors related to improvement in these subscale scores were low scores for each subscale before PDT. Mean logMAR visual acuity was 0.82 before PDT, and 0.72 at 1 year after PDT. Mean foveal thickness was 244 microm before PDT, and 189 microm at 1 year. Retinal detachment disappeared in 73% of the patients at 1 year. In 27 eyes with improved visual acuity at 1 year, three subscale scores, mental health (p = 0.01), role limitation (p = 0.03) and general vision (p = 0.04), showed improvement despite a mean foveal thickness of 165 microm and 93% disappearance of retinal detachment.

Conclusion: QOL after PDT improved in association with improvements in clinical findings. However, QOL improvement was limited even when PDT was successful.