Effect of intravitreal injection of aflibercept on cardiovascular risk parameters in patients with neovascular age related macular degeneration

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantinos D. Georgakopoulos ◽  
Athina Pallikari ◽  
Panagiotis Plotas ◽  
Konstantinos Kagkelaris ◽  
Stylianos Mastronikolis ◽  
...  

Objective: Systemic administration of anti-vascular endothelial growth factors (anti-VEGFs) has been associated with severe cardiovascular adverse events in oncologic patients. The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate the short-term effect of a single intravitreal injection of aflibercept on biomarkers related to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Patients and Methods: Forty-seven treatment naïve patients with neovascular age related macular degeneration in one eye were enrolled in the study. The patients underwent treatment with one intravitreal injection of aflibercept in the affected eye. Laboratory biomarkers of cardiovascular disease were evaluated before the first intravitreal injection of aflibercept and at 7 and 30 days after aflibercept administration. More precisely, we evaluated the levels of homocysteine, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and C-reactive protein. Results: There was not any statistically significant change in the levels of the evaluated parameters up to one month after the first intravitreal injection of aflibercept. Conclusions: According to our study, administration of a single dose of aflibercept in eyes with neovascular age-related macular degeneration does not seem to affect the evaluated biomarkers that are related to cardiovascular disease.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fen-Fen Li ◽  
Yuqin Wang ◽  
Qi Chen ◽  
Lue Xiang ◽  
Feng-Qin Rao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the major causes of vision loss. Early AMD needs to be taken seriously, whereas lipid biomarkers’ casual effects on early AMD remain unclear. Methods In this study, a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to systematically assess the causal relationships between seven serum lipid biomarkers, consisting of apolipoprotein A (ApoA), apolipoprotein B (ApoB), total cholesterol (CHOL), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), direct low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), lipoprotein A [Lp(a)], and triglycerides (TG), and the risk of early AMD. Totally, 14,034 cases and 91,214 controls of European ancestry were included in the analysis (Number of SNPs = 11,304,110). Results MR estimates showed that a higher HDL-C level was strongly associated with increased risk of early AMD (OR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.15-1.35, P = 2.61 × 10−8). In addition, the level of ApoA was also positively associated with the risk of early AMD (OR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.50-2.77, P = 6.27 × 10−6). Conversely, higher LDL-C levels significantly decreased the risk of early AMD (OR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.85-0.96, P = 2.03 × 10−3). In addition to LDL-C, higher levels of ApoB and TG were found to be positively associated with early AMD risk. Sensitivity analyses further supported these associations. Moreover, multivariable MR analyses, adjusting for the effects of correlated lipid biomarkers yielded similar results. Conclusion This study addresses the question of causality relationships that elevated circulating HDL-C/ApoA levels and increased risk of early AMD, whereas LDL-C, ApoB, and TG specifically reduce the risk of early AMD. These findings contribute to our better understanding of the role of lipid metabolism in drusen formation, particularly in early AMD development.


Author(s):  
Liv Tybjærg Nordestgaard ◽  
Anne Tybjærg-Hansen ◽  
Ruth Frikke-Schmidt ◽  
Børge Grønne Nordestgaard

Abstract Context To enable prevention and treatment of age-related macular degeneration(AMD), understanding risk factors for AMD is important. Objective We tested the hypotheses that elevated plasma apolipoprotein A1 and high-density lipoprotein(HDL) cholesterol, and low levels of low-density lipoprotein(LDL) cholesterol, are associated with increased risk of AMD. Design and Setting From the Danish general population, we studied 106,703 and 16,032 individuals in the Copenhagen General Population Study(CGPS) and the Copenhagen City Heart Study(CCHS) with median follow-up of respectively 9 and 32 years. Main Outcome Measures 1,787 AMD in CGPS and 206 in CCHS. Results Higher concentrations of plasma apolipoprotein A1 and HDL cholesterol, and lower concentrations of LDL cholesterol, were associated with higher risk of AMD in CGPS. After multifactorial adjustment, individuals in the highest versus lowest quartile of plasma apolipoprotein A1 and HDL cholesterol had hazard ratios for AMD of 1.40(95%CI:1.20-1.63) and 1.22(1.03-1.45). Corresponding hazard ratios for individuals in the lowest versus highest quartile of LDL cholesterol were 1.18(1.02-1.37). Per 100 mg/dL higher plasma apolipoprotein A1, 1 mmol/L(39 mg/dL) higher HDL, and 1 mmol/L(39mmol/L) lower LDL cholesterol, the hazard ratios for AMD were 1.53(1.31-1.80), 1.19(1.07-1.32), and 1.05(1.00-1.11), respectively, with similar results across strata of different risk factors. Higher concentrations of HDL cholesterol were also associated with higher risk of AMD in the CCHS. Conclusion Elevated plasma apolipoprotein A1 and HDL cholesterol, and lower LDL cholesterol, are associated with increased risk of age-related macular degeneration.


Author(s):  
Xikun Han ◽  
Jue-Sheng Ong ◽  
Alex W Hewitt ◽  
Puya Gharahkhani ◽  
Stuart MacGregor

Abstract Background Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of vision loss. Whereas lipids have been studied extensively to understand their effects on cardiovascular diseases, their relationship with AMD remains unclear. Methods Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were performed to systematically evaluate the causal relationships between eight serum lipid biomarkers, consisting of apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1), apolipoprotein B (ApoB), total cholesterol (CHOL), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), direct low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), lipoprotein A [Lp(a)], triglycerides (TG) and non-HDL cholesterol (non-HDL-C), and the risk of different AMD stages and subtypes. We derived 64–407 genetic instruments for eight serum lipid biomarkers in 419 649 participants of European descent from the UK Biobank cohort. We conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for 12 711 advanced AMD cases [8544 choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and 2656 geographic atrophy (GA) specific AMD subtypes] and 5336 intermediate AMD cases with 14 590 controls of European descent from the International AMD Genomics Consortium. Results Higher genetically predicted HDL-C and ApoA1 levels increased the risk of all AMD subtypes. LDL-C, ApoB, CHOL and non-HDL-C levels were associated with decreased risk of intermediate and GA AMD but not with CNV. Genetically predicted TG levels were associated with decreased risk of different AMD subtypes. Sensitivity analyses revealed no evidence for directional pleiotropy effects. In our multivariable MR analyses, adjusting for the effects of correlated lipid biomarkers yielded similar results. Conclusion These results suggest the role of lipid metabolism in drusen formation and particularly in AMD development at the early and intermediate stages. Mechanistic studies are warranted to investigate the utility of lipid pathways for therapeutic treatment in preventing AMD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 251584142090392
Author(s):  
Constantinos D. Georgakopoulos ◽  
Olga E. Makri ◽  
Athina Pallikari ◽  
Konstantinos Kagkelaris ◽  
Panagiotis Plotas ◽  
...  

Purpose: Treatment with intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents has been associated with an increased risk of arterial thromboembolic events. The aim of the present pilot study was to assess the effect of a single intravitreal injection of aflibercept on coagulation. Methods: Treatment-naïve patients with age-related macular degeneration ( n = 47), who were scheduled to undergo treatment with intravitreal injections of aflibercept, were enrolled. None of the included patients received any anticoagulation therapy or had a history of a recent arterial thromboembolic event. Blood samples were collected before the first intravitreal injection, and at 7 and 30 days after aflibercept administration. We evaluated coagulation parameters, such as platelet count and plasma fibrinogen and D-dimer levels; functional clotting parameters, such as prothrombin time, international normalized ratio, and activated partial thromboplastin time; and anticoagulant parameters, such as the levels of Proteins S and C. Results: The levels of all of the evaluated biomarkers were within the normal range at baseline and at both the time points throughout the study. No statistically significant changes were observed in any of the measured parameters at 1 week and 1 month after aflibercept administration. Conclusion: A single intravitreal injection of aflibercept in treatment-naïve patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration has no statistically significant effect on blood coagulation parameters for up to 1 month after aflibercept administration. Our results also provide an explorative statistical data, and further studies are required to evaluate any significant clinical effects of aflibercept on blood coagulation parameters. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03509623.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Wang ◽  
Yangjing Xue ◽  
Saroj Thapa ◽  
Luping Wang ◽  
Jifei Tang ◽  
...  

Data on the association between age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cardiovascular disease and mortality are conflicting. The purpose of this report is to conduct a systematic review to better understand the role of AMD as a risk factor for CVD events and mortality. We searched Medline (Ovid) and Embase (Ovid) for trials published from 1980 to 2015. We included 20 cohort studies that reported relative risks with 95% confidence intervals for the association of AMD and cardiovascular events and mortality, involving 29,964,334 participants. In a random-effects model, the adjusted RR (95% confidence interval [CI]) associated with AMD was 1.08 (1.00–1.117) for all-cause mortality (8 studies) and 1.18 (0.98–1.43) for cardiovascular disease mortality (5 studies). The pooled RR (95% CI) was 1.17 (0.94–1.45) for coronary heart disease (CHD; 3 studies) and 1.13 (0.93–1.36) for stroke (8 studies). Findings from this systematic review support that AMD is associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality. The evidence that AMD predicts incident CVD events or CVD mortality remains inclusive and warrants further study in the future.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katayoon B. Ebrahimi ◽  
James T. Handa

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness among the elderly. While excellent treatment has emerged for neovascular disease, treatment for early AMD is lacking due to an incomplete understanding of the early molecular events. A prominent age-related change is the accumulation of neutral lipid in normal Bruch's membrane (BrM) throughout adulthood and also disease-related BrM accumulations called basal deposits and drusen. AMD lesion formation has thus been conceptualized as sharing mechanisms with atherosclerotic plaque formation, where low-density lipoprotein (LDL) retention within the arterial wall initiates a cascade of pathologic events. However, we do not yet understand how lipoproteins contribute to AMD. This paper explores how systemic and local production of lipoproteins might contribute to the pathogenesis of AMD.


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