RESUMO
Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy for diabetic macular edema (DME) improves visual acuity. However, repeated injections during routine outpatient visits are required to maintain this effect. The recent sudden global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had a major impact on daily life, including medical care, such as the provision of VEGF therapy. We retrospectively investigated the relationship between the number of anti-VEGF injections for DME and the number of new COVID-19-positive patients at 23 centers in Japan. We also surveyed ophthalmologists regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on anti-VEGF therapy. In the third and fourth waves of the pandemic, when the number of infected patients increased, the number of injections significantly decreased. In the first, third, and fourth waves, the number of injections increased significantly during the last month of each wave. Approximately 60.9% of ophthalmologists reported that the number of injections decreased after the pandemic. Of the facilities, 52.2% extended the clinic visit intervals; however, there was no significant difference in the actual number of injections given between before and after the pandemic. Although the number of injections temporarily decreased, Japanese ophthalmologists maintained the total annual number of anti-VEGF injections for DME during the pandemic.
RESUMO
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains a serious pandemic. COVID-19 vaccination is urgent needed for limiting SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks by herd immunity. Simultaneously, post-marketing surveillance to assess vaccine safety is important, and collection of vaccine-related adverse events has been in progress. Vision-threatening ophthalmic adverse events of COVID-19 vaccines are rare but are a matter of concern. We report a 45-year-old Japanese male with positive for HLA-DR4/HLA-DRB1*0405, who developed bilateral panuveitis resembling Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease after the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA (BNT162b2) vaccine. Glucocorticosteroid (GC) therapy combined with cyclosporine A (CsA) readily improved the panuveitis. The immune profile at the time of onset was analyzed using CyTOF technology, which revealed activations of innate immunity mainly consisting of natural killer cells, and acquired immunity predominantly composed of B cells and CD8+ T cells. On the other hand, the immune profile in the remission phase was altered by GC therapy with CsA to a profile composed primarily of CD4+ cells, which was considerably similar to that of the healthy control before the vaccination. Our results indicate that BNT162b2 vaccine may trigger an accidental immune cross-reactivity to melanocyte epitopes in the choroid, resulting in the onset of panuveitis resembling VKH disease.
