Subanalysis of a prospective, 12-month, multicenter, phase IIIb trial.
A total of 353 treatment-na茂ve patients with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) receiving quarterly or monthly ranibizumab therapy.
On monthly optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan sets, the VMI configuration was graded by a certified reading center into one of the following conditions: continuous posterior vitreoretinal attachment (PVA), vitreomacular adhesion (VMA), partial vitreous detachment without vitreomacular contact, or complete posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) measurements were performed at monthly intervals. Analysis included patients with a minimum of 10 OCT examinations, including baseline and month 12 (n聽= 251). After integration of the VMI configuration over 12 months, patients were divided into one of the following categories: PVD (n聽= 162), release of vitreomacular contact (RELEASE; n聽= 48), VMA (n聽= 37), or PVA (n聽= 4). General estimation equation analyses were applied to test for noninferiority of quarterly versus monthly treatment.
The BCVA and CRT changes at month聽12.
Mean BCVA changes in letters were聽+4.7 (PVD),聽+3.2 (RELEASE), and聽鈭?.2 (VMA) in the quarterly regimen and聽+4.9 (PVD),聽+12.7 (RELEASE), and聽+7.5 (VMA) in the monthly regimen. No difference in therapeutic efficiency between monthly and quarterly intervention was found in eyes with PVD, and quarterly treatment was noninferior to monthly treatment (P聽= 0.001). However, monthly treatment was superior to quarterly treatment in the RELEASE (P聽= 0.008) and VMA (P聽= 0.043) groups. Mean CRT changes were聽鈭?8 and 鈭?6 渭m (PVD),聽鈭?17 and 鈭?36 渭m (RELEASE), and聽鈭?3 and 鈭?7 渭m (VMA) in the monthly and quarterly regimens, respectively, without statistically significant differences.
The configuration of the VMI seems to have an important effect on visual outcomes and need for retreatment. In patients with PVD, a lower treatment frequency may be feasible, whereas patients with RELEASE or VMA may benefit from intensive retreatment. These findings may serve as a basis for individualized treatment decisions in anti-angiogenic therapy of neovascular AMD and perhaps other indications.
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