Abstract:

Objective To evaluate the changes of subfoveal choroidal thickness after intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endovascular growth factor (VEGF) drugs for macular edema caused by diabetic retinopathy (DME) and macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO-ME) using optical coherence tomography enhanced depth scanning mode (EDI-OCT). Design Retrospective case series. Participants Thirteen eyes with DME and fifteen eyes with RVO-ME who underwent intravitreal anti-VEGF drug injection from December 2014 to November 2018 were selected. Methods The subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) was measured by EDI-OCT before and 1, 3 and 6 months after operation to evaluate the changes of SFCT after intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF drugs for DME and RVO-ME. Main Outcome Measure SFCT. Results The value of SFCT in DME group 1, 3 and 6 months after operation was (224.85±50.03)μm, (215.62±47.70)μm, (207.54±46.85)μm respectively, and was lower than that before operation (P=0.0004, 0.0002, 0.0001); SFCT decreased in 3 and 6 months after operation compared with 1 month after operation (P=0.003, 0.001); SFCT decreased in 6 months after operation compared with 3 months after operation (P=0.026). The value of SFCT in RVO-ME group 1, 3 and 6 months after operation was (260.67±42.29)μm, (254.33±40.54)μm, (239.73±37.08)μm respectively, and was lower than that before operation (P=0.0003, 0.0002, 0.0002); SFCT decreased in 3 months after operation compared with 1 month after operation (P=0.599); SFCT decreased in 6 months after operation compared with 1, 3 months after operation (P=0.0002，0.0003). Conclusion SFCT decreased significantly after intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF drugs for DME and RVO-ME. Dynamic monitoring of SFCT values may be helpful in detecting the changes of the disease.

Key words: intravitreal injection, macular edema, diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, choroidal thickness