Outcomes in Autoimmune Retinopathy Patients Treated With Rituximab

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate clinical and ancillary testing, including adaptive optics, outcomes in autoimmune retinopathy (AIR) patients treated with rituximab.

Design: Retrospective, interventional case series.

Methods: patients: Sixteen AIR patients treated with rituximab.

Observation procedures: All patients were treated with a loading and maintenance dose schedule of intravenous rituximab. Visual acuity (VA), electroretinography (ERG), and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) and visual field (VF) results were recorded. A subset of patients was also imaged using adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (AO-SLO).

Main outcome measures: Rates of VA change before vs after rituximab initiation were compared with mixed-model linear regression.

Results: The rate of visual decline was significantly less after rituximab initiation compared with the rate of visual decline prior to rituximab initiation (P = .005). Seventy-seven percent of eyes had stable or improved VA 6 months after rituximab initiation. Amplitudes and implicit times on ERG, mean deviation on VF, central subfield mean thickness, and total macular volume did not decrease to a significant degree over the rituximab treatment period. Six eyes had serial AO-SLO imaging. Cone densities did not change significantly over the treatment period.

Conclusion: VA was stable or improved in a majority of AIR patients while they were being treated with rituximab. OCT and ERG parameters, as well as AO-SLO cone densities, were stable during treatment. Studies with additional patients and longer follow-up periods are needed to further explore the utility of rituximab in the management of AIR.