gms | German Medical Science

25th Annual Meeting of the German Retina Society

German Retina Society

01.06. - 02.06.2012, Münster

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Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration treated with ranibizumab

Meeting Abstract

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  • Sascha Fauser - Universitäts-Augenklinik Köln
  • P.S. Müther - Universitäts-Augenklinik Köln
  • M. Hermann - Universitäts-Augenklinik Köln
  • U. Viebahn - Universitäts-Augenklinik Köln
  • B. Kirchhof - Universitäts-Augenklinik Köln

German Retina Society. 25th Annual Conference of the German Retina Society. Münster, 01.-02.06.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12rg52

doi: 10.3205/12rg52, urn:nbn:de:0183-12rg523

This is the English version of the article.
The German version can be found at: http://www.egms.de/de/meetings/rg2012/12rg52.shtml

Published: May 30, 2012

© 2012 Fauser et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Background: To analyze the temporal correlations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) suppression, morphologic/functional recurrence of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in eyes with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treated with ranibizumab.

Methods: In this non-randomized prospective clinical study, aqueous humor specimens from 47 patients with exudative AMD were taken before each intravitreal ranibizumab injection. Visual acuity testing and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) were performed prior to each injection. VEGF-A was measured by Luminex multiplex bead analysis.

Results: Ranibizumab resulted in complete VEGF suppression within a mean period of 37.8 days (SD ± 4.8). Recurrences of CNV activity as determined by SD-OCT occurred 93.7 days (SD ± 69.9) after the last ranibizumab treatment (p<0.0001). VEGF levels were never suppressed when a recurrence occurred. Functional recurrence (visual acuity) occurred 114.3 days (SD ± 81.4, p=0.026) after previous treatment.

Conclusions: An intravitreal dosing of 0.5 mg ranibizumab results in a permanent VEGF inhibition if injected every four weeks. CNV recurrences as determined by SD-OCT are always preceded by a loss of intraocular VEGF suppression, and are usually followed by loss of visual acuity in the further course.