Changes of fundus autofluorescence in polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy before and after intravitreal ranibizumab injections / 中华眼底病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the characteristics offundus autofluorescence (FAF) in patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) before and after intravitreal ranibizumab injections.Methods A retrospective case series.Seventeen patients (17 eyes) including 11 males and 6 females were enrolled in this study.Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA),FAF and indocyanine green angiography examination were performed on all eyes.The eyes were divided into hypo-autofluorescence group (8 eyes) and mixed autofluorescence group (9 eyes) according to the fluorescence degree.There was no differences of BCVA between two groups (t=2.403,P=0.072).A11 eyes received monthly intravitreal ranibizumab injections for 3 months followed by an as-needed reinjection schedule.All eyes were followed up for 12 months.FAF was performed at the 3rd,6th and 12th month after first treatment.The changes of FAF characteristics and BCVA before and after treatment were observed.Results Before the treatment,the PCV lesions showed two distinct FAF patternsthe confluent hypo-autofluorescence at the polypoidal lesions and the granular hypo-autofluorescence at branching choroidal vascular networks (BVN).During the treatment,the abnormal FAF area of the whole lesions in all eyes reduced and gradually returned to normal.At the 3rd month after treatment,the central hypo-autofluorescence of polyps was surrounded by a hyper-autofluorescence ring,and with time,the ring was weakened or eliminated.However,all the hypo-autofluorescence findings in BVN at baseline were unchanged during the follow-up period.There was no significant differences in BCVA between hypo-autofluorescence group and hyper-autofluorescence group at different follow-up times (t=2.674,2.862,2.250;P=0.058,0.052,0.081).At final follow-up,5 eyes (62.5％) in hypo-autofluorescence group and 3 eyes (33.3％)in hyper-autofluorescence group had increased BCVA,the different was not significant (P=0.347).Conclusions Before the treatment,there were the central hypo-autofluorescence of polyps and circumferential hypo-autofluorescence ring or confluent hypo-autofluorescence.After the treatment,the autofluorescence of polyps increased and then gradually returned to normal.