Aim: To evaluate the predictors of visual improvement in eyes with naive choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration (CNV -AMD) treated with intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) monotherapy.
Methods: Fifty eyes with naive CNV- AMD with pretreatment best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) better than 20/200 and treated with IVB monotherapy were evaluated. Several variables including age, sex, pre-treatment BCVA, CNV type and lesion size on fluorescein angiogram as well as SD-OCT parameters including pre-treatment central macular thickness (CMT), inner-segment/outer-segment (IS/OS) junction integrity, and external limiting membrane (ELM) integrity were analyzed to predict visual outcome.
Results: On univariate regression, pretreatment ELM damage was associated with less visual improvement after treatment (P=0.0145). However, ELM damage predicted only 10% of the visual outcome. On multivariate regression, pretreatment BCVA, IS/OS junction, and ELM integrity on SD-OCT were the significant predictors for the treatment effect and together predicted 37% of visual improvement.
Conclusion: Pretreatment BCVA, ELM and IS/OS junction integrity on SD-OCT are of significant value in predicting the visual improvement in naive wet AMD patients treated with IVB monotherapy.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration; avastin; choroidal neovascularization; external limiting membrane.