PDT combined with intravitreal triamcinolone most effective

Combining photodynamic therapy with intravitreal triamcinolone seems to be more effective at stabilizing vision after 12 months than using photodynamic therapy alone, according to a study.

Wai-Man Chan and colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong Kong prospectively studied 48 eyes of 48 patients with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization caused by age-related macular degeneration. The patients were split into two groups. Half of the patients received combined photodynamic therapy (PDT) with intravitreal triamcinolone, and the other half received just PDT, which served as the control group.

Main outcome measures included the mean number of treatments, mean logMAR best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), mean line of VA changes and the proportion of patients without moderate visual loss at 1 year.

At 1 year, the logMAR BCVA for PDT with intravitreal triamcinolone changed from 0.88 to 0.95, which was not statistically significant. The logMAR BCVA for the monotherapy group reduced from 0.74 to 1.09, which was statistically significant.

The combined therapy “appeared to be relatively safe as the side effects were relatively mild,” with transient IOP in 33.3% of the patients and cataract development in 26.3%.

“Patients who received combined treatment had significantly fewer lines lost at 1 year compared with those who had monotherapy alone,” the researchers stated.

The study was published in the April issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.