Ophthalmologica

SD-OCT improves clinical judgment in AMD Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) can enhance clinical decision-making in the management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) prospective observational clinical study. It showed that in residents with three-to-four years’ experience and specialists with more than five years’ experience, SD-OCT helped guide both groups’ recommendations for further treatment at four weeks’ follow-up (p=0.001 and p=0.0002) in 49 eyes of 44 neovascular AMD patients who underwent a loading dose of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-inhibitors. C Volz et al, “Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Allows the Unification of Clinical Decision Making for the Evaluation of Choroidal Neovascularization Activity”, Ophthalmologica 2019, Volume 241, Issue 1. Sub-tenon injections provide an alternative to intravitreal approach Sub-tenon triamcinolone acetonide (STTA) injections can be an effective alternative to intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide (IVTA) injections during cataract surgery in the treatment of diabetic macular oedema (DME), according to the results of a retrospective study. A review of the medical records of 67 eyes of 53 DME patients who underwent cataract surgery showed that both STTA and IVTA resulted in significant improvements in best-corrected visual acuity at three and six months. However, only 13 eyes in the IVTA group required other therapies compared to 21 eyes in the STTA group (p<0.05). One case developed intraocular pressure elevation after IVTA and underwent selective laser trabeculoplasty. T Tatsumi et al, “Comparison of the Efficacy of Sub-Tenon versus Intravitreal Triamcinolone Acetonide Injection during Cataract Surgery for Diabetic Macular Edema”, Ophthalmologica 2019, Volume 241, Issue 1. First Ranibizumab biosimilar shows efficacy in RVO The results of a retrospective study suggest that the Ranibizumab biosimilar, Razumab® (Intas Pharmaceuticals) is safe and effective in the treatment of retinal vein occlusion (RVO). In 160 RVO patients who received three or more injections of Razumab between January and August 2016, the mean logMAR best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) improved from a baseline value 0.76 to 0.73 at four weeks (p=0.0656) and 0.55 at eight weeks (p<0.0001. The proportion of patients with intraretinal fluid and subretinal fluid decreased over the same period from 70.63% to 30.0% and from 65.63% to 24.38%. No new safety concerns were observed. S Sharma et al, “Real-Life Clinical Effectiveness of Razumab® in Retinal Vein Occlusion: A Subgroup Analysis of the Pooled Retrospective RE-ENACT Study” Ophthalmologica 2019, Volume 241, Issue 1.

Tags: diabetic macular oedema, neovascular age-related macular degeneration, retinal vein occlusion, Spectral domain optical coherence tomography, sub-tenon injections