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Triamcinolone effective against diabetic edema in nonrandomized trial
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Patients with chronic diabetic macular edema who were unresponsive to conventional laser treatment experienced short-term visual acuity improvement after intravitreal injections of triamcinolone, a group of British researchers reported.
A.K. Negi and colleagues at University Hospital in Nottingham, England, prospectively studied 24 eyes of 24 patients with chronic diabetic macular edema refractory to laser treatment in a nonrandomized trial of intravitreal injection of 4 mg of triamcinolone acetonide. Best corrected visual acuity, near vision, slit-lamp biomicroscopy and IOP checks were performed at baseline and at 1, 3 and 6 months after treatment.
On average, the duration of a macular edema before treatment was 38.2 months. The patients had undergone a mean of 2.2 laser treatments before triamcinolone injection.
Visual acuity improved in 19 of 24 eyes (83%) at the first month’s follow-up visit, 16 of 21 eyes (76%) at 3 months and six of 11 eyes (55%) at 6 months. Mean BCVA improved by an average of 10 letters compared with baseline at month 1, by 9 letters compared with baseline at month 3 and by 6 letters compared with baseline at month 6.
IOP was also elevated over the course of the follow-up, by 2.4 mm Hg at month 1, by 2.8 mm Hg at month 3 and by 2.7 mm Hg at month 6.
The study is published in the July issue of Eye.