Short-term outcomes of patients with neovascular exudative AMD: the effect of COVID-19 pandemic.
Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol
; 258(12): 2621-2628, 2020 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-812593
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
To estimate the impact of delayed care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the outcomes of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).METHODS:
Consecutive patients with diagnosis of neovascular AMD were consecutively enrolled between March 9, 2020, and June 12, 2020, (during and immediately after the Italian COVID-19 quarantine). During the inclusion (or pandemic) visit (V0), patients received a complete ophthalmologic evaluation, including optical coherence tomography (OCT). Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and OCT findings from the two preceding visits (V-1 and V-2) were compared with data at V0.RESULTS:
One-hundred patients (112 eyes) were enrolled in this study. The time interval between following visits was 110.7 ± 37.5 days within V0 and V-1 and 80.8 ± 39.7 days within V-1 and V-2, respectively (P < 0.0001). BCVA was statistically worse at the V0 visit as compared with the immediately preceding (V-1) visit (0.50 ± 0.43 LogMAR and 0.45 ± 0.38 LogMAR at the V0 and V-1 visits, respectively; P = 0.046). On structural OCT, 91 out of 112 (81.2%) neovascular AMD eyes displayed the evidence of exudative disease activity at the V0 visit, while 77 (68.7%) eyes exhibited signs of exudation at the V-1 visit (P = 0.022). No differences in terms of BCVA and OCT findings were detected between the V-1 and V-2 visits. In multiple regression analysis, the difference in BCVA between V0 and V-1 visits was significantly associated with the interval time within these two visits (P = 0.026).CONCLUSION:
The COVID-19 pandemic-related postponement in patient care proved to be significantly associated with worse short-term outcomes in these patients.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Retinal Neovascularization
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Choroidal Neovascularization
/
Angiogenesis Inhibitors
/
Wet Macular Degeneration
/
Time-to-Treatment
/
Betacoronavirus
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S00417-020-04955-7
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS