TY - JOUR T1 - Intraretinal cysts are the most relevant prognostic biomarker in neovascular age-related macular degeneration independent of the therapeutic strategy JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol SP - 1629 LP - 1635 DO - 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2014-305186 VL - 98 IS - 12 AU - Markus Ritter AU - Christian Simader AU - Matthias Bolz AU - Gábor G Deák AU - Ulrike Mayr-Sponer AU - Ramzi Sayegh AU - Michael Kundi AU - Ursula M Schmidt-Erfurth Y1 - 2014/12/01 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/98/12/1629.abstract N2 - Background/aims To investigate the impact of antiangiogenic monotherapy and photodynamic therapy (PDT) as add-on strategy on retinal morphology, and to analyse prognostic biomarkers for visual outcome and retreatment frequency in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). Methods 255 patients participating in the MONT BLANC study were evaluated. Patients were randomised to receive as-needed ranibizumab monotherapy or combination therapy (verteporfin PDT and ranibizumab). Outcome measures included visual acuity (VA), retinal morphology assessed by optical coherence tomography and retreatment frequency. Results The proportion of scans showing intraretinal cysts (IRC) or subretinal fluid (SRF) decreased more intensively in the combination than in the monotherapy group. Pigment epithelial detachments (PED) decreased significantly only in the combination group. Patients with IRC presented the lowest initial VA, and IRC had the strongest negative predictive value for functional improvement in both groups. SRF showed a predictive value for a higher number of ranibizumab injections (combination, +0.9; monotherapy, +0.8) and a higher number of PDT treatments in the combination group (+0.3). PED was associated with a higher number of ranibizumab injections only in the monotherapy group (+1.2). Conclusions Combination and monotherapy showed a distinct response pattern for morphological parameters in nAMD. IRC was the only relevant prognostic parameter for functional outcome. Trial registration number NCT00433017. ER -