Visual Parameters and Retinal Morphology for Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy Pre- and Post-Intravitreal Ranibizumab with or without Photodynamic Therapy: A Short-Term Prospective Study

The objective of this study was to compare visual parameters and retinal layers’ morphology pre-treatment (baseline) and 6 months post-treatment in polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) eyes. A single centre, longitudinal, prospective study was conducted at a public tertiary hospital of Malaysia. Visual parameters including distance and near visual acuity (DVA and NVA), contrast sensitivity (CS), reading speed (RS), and different qualitative and quantitative optical coherence tomography (OCT) parameters were evaluated pre- and 6 months post-treatment. Thirty-three naïve PCV eyes of 32 patients (mean age of 67.62 years) were evaluated pre- and post-treatment of intravitreal ranibizumab with and without photodynamic therapy. After treatment, sub retinal fluid decreased from 27 eyes (84.35%) at baseline to 7 eyes (21.88%) at 6 months while pigment epithelium detachment decreased from 32 eyes (100%) at base line to 15 eyes (46.87%) at 6 months. Mean pre-treatment quantitative morphological OCT retinal parameters including thickness and volume of central sub field, center thickness, center minimum, and maximum thickness reduced significantly. Similarly, all visual parameters including DVA, NVA, CS, and RS showed statistically significant improvement. While 89% of the eyes showed improvement in CS, 78%, 71%, and 65% of the eyes showed improvement in NVA, RS, and DVA, respectively. Thus, CS was the most treatment responsive visual parameter.

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Combination of half-dose photodynamic therapy and anti-VEGF versus anti-VEGF monotherapy for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

Malaysian Journal of Ophthalmology ◽

10.35119/myjo.v3i3.136 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 81-91

Author(s):

Jun Yong Chow ◽

Poh Fong She ◽

Mae-Lynn Catherine Bastion ◽

Wan Norliza Binti Wan Muda

Keyword(s):

Photodynamic Therapy ◽

Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy ◽

Post Treatment ◽

Secondary Outcome ◽

Combination Group ◽

Monotherapy Group ◽

Intravitreal Ranibizumab ◽

Anti Vegf ◽

Half Dose ◽

Choroidal Vasculopathy

Introduction: Polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) is an abnormality of the inner choroidal vasculature. The recommended treatment for PCV is a combination of standard verteporfin photodynamic therapy (PDT) with intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF). There have been reports ofsuccess with combination of half-dose PDT (hd-PDT) and anti-VEGF in the treatment of PCV. hd-PDT might be a cost-effective method with favourable outcome in the treatment of PCV and fewer side effects.Purpose: To explore the efficacy of hd-PDT combined with anti-VEGF and anti-VEGF monotherapy in PCV.Study design: Retrospective nonrandomized comparative study.Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective nonrandomized comparative records review of all patients with PCV received a combination of hd-PDT and anti-VEGF vs anti-VEGF monotherapy from November 2017 to November 2019 at Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Pahang, Malaysia. Patients received a half-dose of verteporfin over 10 minutes and were irradiated by the standard fluence combined with intravitreal ranibizumab or aflibercept injections. The monotherapy group received either intravitreal ranibizumab or aflibercept. Primary outcome measures were best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central subfield thickness (CST) at 6 months post-treatment. Secondary outcome measure was documentation of sideeffects.Results: The study included a total of 16 patients, with 8 patients (8 eyes) in the combination group and 8 patients (10 eyes) in the monotherapy group. At 6 months post-treatment, the BCVA changes in logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) were -0.06 in the combination group and +0.02 in the monotherapy group (p = 0.928). The average CST reduction was 51.6 μm in the combination group and 106.1 μm in the monotherapy group (p = 0.214). One eye developed subretinal haemorrhage after hd-PDT and one eye developed retinal atrophy in the monotherapy group.Conclusion: hd-PDT combined with anti-VEGF was able to produce similar functional outcomes in terms of BCVA when compared to anti-VEGF monotherapy. However, monotherapy is shown to be superior to combination treatment for anatomical improvement.

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