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
. 2024 May 23;10(1):39.
doi: 10.1186/s40942-024-00558-0.

Near vision in patients with DME and RVO treated with aflibercept and correlation with NEI VFQ-25 questionnaire

Zuzana Anwarzai Sulavikova  1 , Zuzana Sustykevicova  2 , Marek Kacerik  2 , Vladimir Krasnik  3
Affiliations

Near vision in patients with DME and RVO treated with aflibercept and correlation with NEI VFQ-25 questionnaire

Zuzana Anwarzai Sulavikova et al. Int J Retina Vitreous. .

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate near and distance visual acuity (VA) and their correlation with the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) outcomes in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) and macular edema due to retinal vein occlusion (RVO) treated with aflibercept.

Methods: In this prospective study, we included 87 eyes of patients diagnosed with DME (n = 61) and RVO (n = 26), who received aflibercept treatment and were followed until the 8th injection. Near VA was examined on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 8th injection, and patients completed the NEI VFQ-25 on the 1st, 4th, and 8th aflibercept injection.

Results: The mean near VA at baseline in all eyes was 0.89 ± 0.12 logMAR. With every administration, there was a statistically significant improvement; on the 4th (0.70 ± 0.19; p = 0.000) and the 8th application (0.60 ± 0.19; p = 0.000). At baseline, the mean NEI VFQ-25 total score was 71 ± 14%, and improved to 81 ± 13% (p = 0.000) on the 8th injection. The most significant score gain was recorded in the near VA subscale (+ 20 ± 14%, p = 0.000). There was no statistically significant difference between DME and RVO group in the questionnaire or near VA outcomes.

Conclusion: Aflibercept treatment resulted in a remarkable improvement of near vision by 4 lines of logMAR optotype after the 8th application. The near vision questionnaire subscale, initially scoring the lowest, exhibited the greatest gain during the treatment period. This underscores the importance of near vision and reading ability for patients with DME and RVO.

Keywords: Aflibercept; DME; NEI VFQ-25; Near vision; RVO.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors confirm that they have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distance best corrected visual acuity outcomes (ETDRS) are presented for the entire eyes cohort in grey, retinal vein occlusion (RVO) eyes in blue, and eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME) in orange
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Central retinal thickness is presented for the entire eyes cohort in grey, retinal vein occlusion (RVO) eyes in blue, and eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME) in orange
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Near visual acuity outcomes (logMAR) are presented for the entire eyes cohort in grey, retinal vein occlusion (RVO) eyes in blue, and eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME) in orange
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The scanned near vision chart used in the study. Baseline near visual acuity averaged 0.89 ± 0.12 (red), demonstrating improvement to 0.60 ± 0.19 logMAR by the 8th injection (green). The logMAR range of 0.48–0.50 (yellow) corresponds to the text size typically found in books
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Correlations between near vision, OCT, BCVA, and questionnaire score outcomes are illustrated OCT-optical coherence tomography, ETDRS-Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study, NV-near vision
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Korobelnik JF, Do DV, Schmidt-Erfurth U. Intravitreal Aflibercept for Diabetic Macular Edema. Ophthalmology. 2014;121:2247–54. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2014.05.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brown DM, Schmidt-Erfurth U, Do DV, Holz FG, Boyer DS, Midena E, Heier JS, Terasaki H, Kaiser PK, Marcus DM, Nguyen QD, Jaffe GJ, Slakter JS, Simader C, Soo Y, Schmelter T, Yancopoulos GD, Stahl N, Vitti R, Berliner AJ, Zeitz O, Metzig C, Korobelnik JF. Intravitreal Aflibercept for Diabetic Macular Edema: 100-Week results from the VISTA and VIVID studies. Ophthalmology. 2015;122:2044–52. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2014.05.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Heier JS, Korobelnik JF, Brown DM, Schmidt-Erfurth U, Do DV, Midena E, Boyer DS, Terasaki H, Kaiser PK, Marcus DM, Nguyen QD, Jaffe GJ, Slakter JS, Simader C, Soo Y, Schmelter T, Vitti R, Berliner AJ, Zeitz O, Metzig C, Holz FG. Intravitreal Aflibercept for Diabetic Macular Edema: 148-Week results from the VISTA and VIVID studies. Ophthalmology. 2016;123:2376–85. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2016.07.032. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cai S, Bressler NM. Aflibercept, bevacizumab or ranibizumab for diabetic macular oedema: recent clinically relevant findings from DRCR.net Protocol T. Curr Opin Ophthalmol. 2017;28:636–43. doi: 10.1097/ICU.0000000000000424. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rayner K, Well AD, Pollatsek A. Asymmetry of the effective visual field in reading. Percept Psychophys. 1980;27:537–44. doi: 10.3758/bf03198682. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources