Long-term Retinal Morphology and Functional Associations in Treated Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Findings from the Inhibition of VEGF in Age-Related Choroidal Neovascularisation Trial

Tunde Peto, Rebecca N Evans, Barnaby C Reeves, Simon Harding, Savita Madhusudhan, Andrew Lotery, Susan Downes, Konstantinos Balaskas, Clare C Bailey, Alexander Foss, Faruque Ghanchi, Yit Yang, Dawn Phillips, Chris A Rogers, Alyson Muldrew, Barbra Hamill, Usha Chakravarthy

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Abstract

Objective/Purpose
To describe the frequency of long-term morphological features and their relationships with visual function in participants who exited the inhibition of VEGF in age-related choroidal neovascularization (IVAN: ISRCTN92166560) trial.

Design
Multicenter cohort study up to 7 years after enrolment.

Participants
Patients enrolled in IVAN excluding participants who died or withdrew during the trial.

Methods
Multimodal fundus images, best corrected (BCVA) and low luminance visual acuity (LLVA) were obtained in a subset of 199 participants who attended a research visit. Clinical sites (n=20) also provided all visual acuity and clinical information from usual care records for 532 participants and submitted most recent color, OCT and other fundus images for 468 participants to a reading center.

Main Outcome Measures
Assessed from most recent images: intralesional macular atrophy (ILMA) within the footprint of the neovascular lesion; hyperreflective material (HRM); intraretinal fluid (IRF); subretinal fluid (SRF); pigment epithelial detachment (PED); disorganization of outer retinal layers (DROL). Cross sectional relationships between morphological features and BCVA/LLVA were estimated.

Results
ILMA was present in 31.8% of study eyes at IVAN exit (mean follow-up 1.96 years) and 89.5% at the most recent imaging visit (6.18 years). HRM, IRF, SRF, PED and DROL were present in 78.8%, 47.7%, 7.6%, 94.5% and 55% respectively. In the subset with complete imaging data, in eyes without DROL, BCVA was worst in the thinnest outer fovea tertile (thinnest minus middle and thickest tertiles, -19.7 and -19.5 letters respectively) whereas in eyes with DROL, BCVA was worst in the thickest (thinnest and middle tertiles minus thickest, 12.5 and 12.2 respectively). Regression models showed that presence of ILMA and HRM were independently associated with BCVA (22 letters worse (95% CI 11.2, 32.8, p<0.001) and 9.8 letters worse (95% CI 0.1, 19.4, p=0.047), respectively). SRF and foveal PED were associated with better BCVA (5.9 letters, 95% CI -7.9, 19.7, p<0.399; and 6.4 letters, 95% CI -1.1, 14.0, p=0.094 respectively). The model with LLVA was similar. Sensitivity analysis including the entire eligible cohort yielded similar estimates.

Conclusions
Macular atrophy and HRM were common after 7 years of follow-up and strongly associated with visual outcomes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)664-675
JournalOpthalmology Retina
Volume6
Issue number8
Early online date03 Aug 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2022

Keywords

  • disorganization of outer retina
  • macular atrophy
  • long-term follow-up
  • spectral domain OCT
  • IVAN trial

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