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Characteristics of treatment-naïve quiescent choroidal neovascularization detected by optical coherence tomography angiography in patients with age-related macular degeneration

  • Retinal Disorders
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

To determine the characteristics of eyes with treatment-naïve quiescent choroidal neovascularization (CNV) detected by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

Methods

Thirty-eight eyes of 37 treatment-naïve consecutive patients (30 men, 7 women, average 69.8 years) were studied. Quiescent CNVs were detected by OCTA (RTVue XR Avanti, Optovue, Fremont, CA) in all eyes. Swept-source OCT (SS-OCT; DRI-OCT, Topcon, Japan) confirmed the absence of exudation. The symptoms, visual acuity, CNV size, and status of the fellow eye were evaluated. Patients were followed longitudinally and the length of follow-up period and development of exudation were recorded for each patient. We also investigated patients’ medical records from their referral hospitals in search of prior exudation.

Results

All eyes with quiescent CNV were diagnosed at the initial visit with sub-retinal pigment epithelium CNVs, i.e., type 1 CNV, from the OCT and OCTA images. Prior exudation was confirmed in 15 eyes (39.5%) from their medical records of the referral hospitals. Symptoms were present in 18 eyes (47.3%). An exudative CNV was present in 12 of the fellow eyes. Exudation developed in 12 eyes (31.6%) during an average follow-up period of 25.1 months. One-half of the eyes had a prior exudation. The CNV at the baseline in eyes that developed exudation during the follow-up period was larger than eyes without exudation; however, the difference was not significant (0.59±0.47 vs 0.48±0.32 mm2, P = 0.50).

Conclusion

Quiescent CNVs will develop exudation in approximately 30% of the eyes during a mean 2-year follow-up period. These findings must be remembered when investigating quiescent CNVs that could not be distinguished from eyes with former active CNV and naturally deactivate CNV.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Professor Emeritus Duco Hamasaki of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami, for his critical discussion and editing of the revised manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Tokyo Women’s Medical University School of Medicine, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, 8-1 Kawadacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8666, Japan

    Akira Fukushima, Ichiro Maruko, Kyoko Chujo, Taiji Hasegawa, Hisaya Arakawa & Tomohiro Iida

Authors
  1. Akira Fukushima
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  2. Ichiro Maruko
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  3. Kyoko Chujo
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  4. Taiji Hasegawa
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  5. Hisaya Arakawa
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  6. Tomohiro Iida
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ichiro Maruko.

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Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Board of the Tokyo Women’s Medical University and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of interest

Dr. Fukushima has nothing to disclose. Dr. Maruko reports grants from JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number JP 20K09781), grants and personal fees from Alcon Pharma K.K., personal fees from Bayer Yakuhin, Ltd., personal fees from Santen Pharmaceutical Inc., personal fees from Alcon Japan, Ltd., personal fees from Topcon Co., Ltd., personal fees from Senju Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and personal fees from NIDEK Co., Ltd., outside the submitted work. Dr. Chujo has nothing to disclose. Dr. Hasegawa has nothing to disclose. Dr. Arakawa has nothing to disclose. Dr. Iida reports grants and personal fees from Alcon Pharma K.K. (Japan), personal fees from Bayer Yakuhin, Ltd. (Japan), grants and personal fees from Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (japan), grants from Nidek (Japan), grants from Senju Seiyaku (Japan), research support from Canon (Japan), research support from Kowa (Japan), and research support from Topcon (Japan), outside the submitted work.

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Fukushima, A., Maruko, I., Chujo, K. et al. Characteristics of treatment-naïve quiescent choroidal neovascularization detected by optical coherence tomography angiography in patients with age-related macular degeneration. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 259, 2671–2677 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-021-05127-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-021-05127-x

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