08/26/2010 0 Comments

New research shows that 0.5-mg intravitreal injections of ranibizumab can
potentially determine progressive improvement of retinal sensitivity until
24 months.

In a retrospective follow-up study to assess long-term functional
and structural retinal changes in patients with neovascular AMD treated with
intravitreal ranibizumab, 18 affected patients were evaluated. All patients
have been treated with three 0.5-mg injections of ranibizumab one month
apart and retreated according to predefined criteria. At baseline, all
patients were subjected to visual acuity, fluorescein angiography, MP1
microperimetry and Stratus optical coherence tomography. Although visual
acuity and optical coherence tomography were repeated 28 ±two days after
each injection, MP1 was performed at six, 12 and 24 months.

At the end of the study, 17 of 18 completed the 12-month follow-up and 14 of
18 patients completed the 24-month follow-up. Results showed that the mean
retinal sensitivity significantly improved from 3.89 ±3 dB to 7.33 ±4.11 dB
at 24 months (p=0.024). Mean visual acuity improved from 48.67 ±8.59 to
59.17 ±16.45 at 24 months (p=0.049). Visual acuity improved to "15 letters
in six patients (33.3 percent) and <15 letters in eight patients (44.4
percent); four patients (22.2 percent) of patients lost <15 letters at 24
months. Five of 13 patients (38.5 patients) with either an instable or
relatively instable fixation at baseline showed improvement of fixation
stability at 24 months. Central retinal thickness significantly decreased
from 310.5 ±85.7 to 232.9 ±60.1 at 24 months (p= 0.0001). Although
determinable levels of visual acuity provided by the injections taper off
after six months, the results of the study suggest that microperimetry may
give additional information about macular function not given by visual
acuity alone.

Retina 2010;30:1017-24
Parravano M, Oddone F, Tedeschi M, et al.

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