Abstract
Purpose
To investigate the relationship between choroidal thickness (CT) profile and clinical outcomes after anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment in polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).
Methods
Medical records of patients diagnosed with PCV who received anti-VEGF treatment over 12 months were reviewed. Subfoveal CT (SFCT) and peripapillary CT (PCT) were measured on swept-source optical coherence tomography images. Patients were divided into various groups based on choroidal profiles including SFCT, nasal PCT (nPCT) and ratio of SFCT to nPCT (SFCT/nPCT). Clinical outcomes were compared between the thin and thick CT groups.
Results
A total of 65 patients with PCV patients were included. After ant-VEGF treatment, SFCT was significantly decreased after anti-VEGF treatment (P = 0.001), but nasal PCT (nPCT) was not. Clinical outcomes were not different between the thin and thick SFCT groups. Total number of injections during the 12 months was significantly fewer in the thin nPCT group (3.4 ± 1.3) than in the thick nPCT group (4.5 ± 1.8) (P = 0.020). Complete resolution after loading injections was more frequently observed in the high SFCT/nPCT ratio (> 1.9) group (87.9%) than in the low SFCT/nPCT ratio (≤ 1.90) group (59.4%) (P = 0.009). The ratio of SFCT/nPCT showed the best predictive ability for poor responders (area under curve = 0.771).
Conclusion
These results suggest that baseline nPCT and SFCT/nPCT ratio could be a good biomarker that reflects clinical outcomes after anti-VEGF treatment in PCV.
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Data availability
We had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis as well as the decision to submit for publication.
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This study was supported by the Korea University grant (K2011221).
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Y.H.K: conception of the study, data collection, imaging analysis, drafting of the work, manuscript review and final approval. B.L and E.K: data collection, imaging analysis and manuscript review. J.O: data collection, interpretation of data, drafting of the manuscript, manuscript review and final approval.
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This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Korea University Hospital, Seoul, Korea (IRB number: 2020AN0159), and adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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This retrospective study involves no more than minimal risk to subjects, and the IRB of the Korea University Hospital approved our request to waive the informed consent.
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Kim, Y.H., Lee, B., Kang, E. et al. Choroidal thickness profile and clinical outcomes in eyes with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 259, 1711–1721 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-020-05051-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-020-05051-6