Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar;38(3):516-522.
doi: 10.1097/IAE.0000000000001572.

LONG-TERM REMISSION OF NEOVASCULAR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION WITH AS-NEEDED ANTI-VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR THERAPY

Ilkay Kilic Muftuoglu  1 , Mostafa Alam, Qi Sheng You, Raouf Gaber, Hema L Ramkumar, Nadia Mendoza, Amit Meshi, William R Freeman
Affiliations

LONG-TERM REMISSION OF NEOVASCULAR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION WITH AS-NEEDED ANTI-VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR THERAPY

Ilkay Kilic Muftuoglu et al. Retina. 2018 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the presenting characteristics of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration with long-term remission (LTR), which was defined as the absence of intraretinal/subretinal fluid, or hemorrhage, and absence of leakage on fluorescein angiography for longer than 6 months while on as-needed antivascular endothelial growth factor treatment.

Methods: The presenting characteristics of patients with LTR were compared with a control group including 32 eyes of 28 age-, gender-, and ethnicity-matched patients who did not achieve LTR.

Results: Seventy-four percent of patients in the LTR group had Type 1 choroidal neovascular membrane and 18.5% had retinal angiomatous proliferation. In the control group, 28 eyes had Type 1 choroidal neovascular membrane (87.5%), and none of the patients had retinal angiomatous proliferation; overall, there was a significant difference in lesion types between the 2 groups (P = 0.036). Eyes with LTR at presentation had significantly thinner subfoveal choroidal thickness (147 vs. 178 μm, P = 0.04). There was more intraretinal fluid and less subretinal fluid at the presentation in the remission group (59.3% intraretinal fluid and 11.1% subretinal fluid) compared with the control group (28.1% intraretinal fluid and 34.4% subretinal fluid, P = 0.03).

Conclusion: The presence of retinal angiomatous proliferation, thinner choroidal thickness, more intraretinal fluid, and less subretinal fluid at presentation were associated with LTR in patients receiving as-needed treatment for age-related macular degeneration.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan-Meier curve of the survival time to achieve long-term remission in eyes with neovascular age-related macular degeneration treated with as needed anti-VEGF therapy.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan-Meier curve of the survival time for macular atrophy in eyes with long-term remission (n=27 eyes) and eyes with neovacular AMD without long-term remission (205 eyes) (control group+other neovascular AMD patiens) treated with as needed anti-VEGF therapy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Reply.
    Muftuoglu IK, Alam M, You QS, Gaber R, Ramkumar HL, Mendoza N, Meshi A, Freeman WR. Muftuoglu IK, et al. Retina. 2017 Sep;37(9):e110-e112. doi: 10.1097/IAE.0000000000001814. Retina. 2017. PMID: 28820853 Free PMC article.
  • Correspondence.
    Călugăru D, Călugăru M. Călugăru D, et al. Retina. 2017 Sep;37(9):e108-e110. doi: 10.1097/IAE.0000000000001813. Retina. 2017. PMID: 28832442 No abstract available.

References

    1. Lim LS, Mitchell P, Seddon JM, et al. Age-related macular degeneration. Lancet. 2012;379:1728–1738. - PubMed
    1. Bourne RR, Jonas JB, Flaxman SR, et al. Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study. Prevalence and causes of vision loss in high-income countries and in Eastern and Central Europe: 1990–2010. Br J Ophthalmol. 2014;98:629–638. - PubMed
    1. Brown DM, Kaiser PK, Michels M, et al. ANCHOR Study Group. Ranibizumab versus verteporfin for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:1432–1444. - PubMed
    1. Rosenfeld PJ, Brown DM, Heier JS, et al. MARINA Study Group. Ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:1419–1431. - PubMed
    1. CATT Research Group. Martin DF, Maguire MG, Ying GS, Grunwald JE, Fine SL, Jaffe GJ. Ranibizumab and bevacizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. N Engl J Med. 2011;364:1897–1908. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances