DR. KEERTHI KUMAR

DR. PREMNATH RAMAN, DR. SOUMYA H.V., DR.VEENA C.N., DR. ANITA T. GIRISH

Abstract

Intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) is among the current standard of care for diabetic macular edema (DME). About half the patients treated with intravitreal anti-VEGF do not respond adequately, and hence there is a need to find prognostic factors for patients receiving anti-VEGF therapy for DME so that appropriate modalities of treatment can be employed at the earliest.

In our study, we have followed up on 20 patients treated with anti-VEGF for DME and found the presence of disorganization of retinal inner layers (DRIL) at baseline visit was an indicator of the poor visual outcome at 6 months follow-up with a p-value= 0.017 which is significant. The number of hyper-reflective foci (HF) in OCT macula at baseline visit had an inverse correlation (Pearson correlation= -0.38) with final visual acuity at end of six months, however, it was not significant (p-value 0.097). This emphasizes the need for early detection to avoid poor visual outcomes.