Vanishing pachy-choroid in pachychoroid neovasculopathy under long-term anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy

BMC Ophthalmology

Benedikt Schworm¹  Siegfried G. Priglinger¹  Tina R. Herold¹  Jakob Siedlecki¹  Thomas C. Kreutzer¹  Nikolaus Luft¹  Leonie F. Keidel¹ 

[1] Department of Ophthalmology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Mathildenstrasse 8, 80336, Munich, Germany;

关键词: Pachychoroid;    Pachychoroid neovasculopathy;    Central serous chorioretinopathy;    Choroidal neovascularization;    Optical coherence tomography;    Vascular endothelial growth factor;    Ranibizumab;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12886-021-02022-1

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTo investigate the diagnostic value of choroidal thickness in the definition of pachychoroid neovasculopathy (PNV), especially in eyes treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy.MethodsTwenty-two consecutive eyes of 11 patients with uni- or bilateral PNV were analyzed. Anti-VEGF treatment was correlated with changes in choroidal thickness on enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography.ResultsThere were 14 eyes with PNV and 8 non-neovascular partner eyes. Mean age was 64.2 ± 4.0 (range: 60–72), total follow-up was 1.8 ± 0.4 (1–2) years. In PNV eyes, choroidal thickness at baseline was 400 ± 58 (269–485) μm. After two years and 13 anti-VEGF injections on average, a mean reduction of − 39 ± 10 (− 26 to − 56) % to final 241 ± 52 (162–327) μm was observed (p < 0.0001). Meanwhile, choroidal thickness in the partner eyes remained stable (p > 0.13 for all comparisons). A significant correlation of choroidal thinning and anti-VEGF injection rate was observed at year one (r = − 0.79; R2 = 0.63; p = 0.00073) and two (r = − 0.69; R2 = 0.48; p = 0.019). While 85.7% of PNV eyes exceeded a pachychoroid threshold of ≥350 μm at baseline, this figure dropped to 21.4% at year one and 0% at year two.ConclusionIn PNV, choroidal thickness significantly decreases with anti-VEGF therapy, resembling a “vanishing pachy-choroid”, and thus does not represent a valid long-term diagnostic criterium, especially when differentiating PNV from nAMD.

【 授权许可】

CC BY