Anti-VEGF with PDT shows promise in retinal angiomatous proliferation cases

Retina. 2011;31(1):65-73.

Intravitreal ranibizumab combined with photodynamic therapy yielded anatomical and functional improvement in eyes with retinal angiomatous proliferation with serous pigment epithelial detachment, a study said.

The prospective pilot study included 10 eyes of nine newly diagnosed patients, of which nine eyes of eight patients completed the 12-month follow-up period.

Researchers administered three monthly injections of Lucentis (ranibizumab, Genentech). One week after the first injection, patients received one PDT treatment guided by indocyanine green angiography.

At 3 months, the researchers observed favorable responses, with lesion regression in eight of nine eyes (89%).

At 6 months, two eyes (25%) had recurrent lesions and a new lesion had formed in one eye. However, re-treatment yielded favorable responses in all eyes, according to the study.

After 12 months, lesion regression was observed in seven eyes (78%), of which five eyes (56%) required only one treatment session.

The mean best corrected visual acuity improved from 20/125 before treatment to 20/63 (P = .021). The mean improvement in BCVA was 3.86 lines.

In addition, the mean central foveal thickness decreased from 353 mm at baseline to 169 mm (P = .017) at 12-months follow-up. There were no vision-threatening adverse events.