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Incidence and risk factors for neovascular age-related macular degeneration in the fellow eye

  • Retinal Disorders
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The epidemiology, risk factors, and the effect of anti-VEGF treatment on neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) have primarily been studied in the first eye developing the disease. The understanding of pathophysiology and planning of follow-up examinations can be improved by knowledge of incidence and risk factors for development of the disease in the fellow eye.

Methods

In a prospective observational cohort study, epidemiological and clinical risk factors for the development of nAMD in the fellow eye among 2516 patients consecutively diagnosed with the disease from a population of 0.9 million citizens during a period of more than 10 years were studied.

Results

nAMD had been diagnosed in the fellow eye of 541 (21.5%) of the patients. The incidence of fellow-eye involvement increased from approximately 5% in patients initially presenting with bilateral disease to approximately 28% more than 6 years after the diagnosis in the first eye. Visual acuity (VA) was higher and central retinal thickness (CRT) was lower in fellow eyes with nAMD diagnosed later than the first eye. Male gender, increasing leakage area, and peripapillary location of the subretinal neovascular membrane in the first eye reduced the risk of developing disease in the fellow eye.

Conclusions

The planning of follow-up examinations of patients diagnosed with nAMD in one eye should consider that the risk of fellow-eye involvement is higher within the first 6 years, in women, and when the leakage area in the first eye is small and not located peripapillary.

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Acknowledgements

The skillful assistance of biostatistician Anders Michelsen is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Aarhus University Hospital, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark

    Toke Bek & Sidsel Ehlers Klug

Authors
  1. Toke Bek
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  2. Sidsel Ehlers Klug
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Toke Bek.

Ethics declarations

The study was approved by The Central Denmark Region Committees for Health Research Ethics.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study, formal consent was not required, but informed consent for quality assessment of treatment was obtained anyway. No identifying information about individual participants is provided in the manuscript.

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Bek, T., Klug, S.E. Incidence and risk factors for neovascular age-related macular degeneration in the fellow eye. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 256, 2061–2068 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-018-4100-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-018-4100-z

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