Treatment of large avascular retinal pigment epithelium detachments in age-related macular degeneration with aflibercept, photodynamic therapy, and triamcinolone acetonide

Arnt-Ole Tvenning,1,2 Christian Hedels,3 Jørgen Krohn,4,5 Dordi Austeng1,2 1Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway; 2Department of Ophthalmology, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, 7006 Trondheim, Norway; 3Hedels Eye Clinic, 6517 Kristiansund, Norway; 4Department of Clinical Medicine, Section of Ophthalmology, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway; 5Department of Ophthalmology, Haukeland University Hospital, 5053 Bergen, Norway Purpose: To evaluate the use of aflibercept, triamcinolone acetonide, and photodynamic therapy (PDT) in the treatment of avascular pigment epithelium detachments (aPEDs). Patients and methods: Patients with treatment-naïve aPEDs ≥1,500 µm in diameter were randomized to treatment or observation. Treatment consisted of 6 monthly intravitreal injections of aflibercept. If the aPED persisted, the patients were treated with half-fluence PDT in combination with intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide and aflibercept. The primary outcome was change of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) after 24 months of follow-up. Secondary outcomes were changes in pigment epithelium volume, height and diameter, central retinal thickness, and number of patients developing choroidal neovascularization or geographic atrophy (GA). Results: Treatment and inclusion of patients were stopped after an interim analysis of 6-month data because 75% of the aPEDs were in different stages of GA. Nine patients with aPED were included in the study, of these one patient was excluded because of bilateral central serous chorioretinopathy. The remaining eight had drusenoid aPEDs. After 24 months of follow-up, estimated means of BCVA decreased by 4.2 and 20.8 letters in the treatment and observation group, respectively. This decrease over time was not significantly different between groups (P=0.140, 95% CI -5.3, 38.6). Estimated means of PED volume, height, diameter, and central retinal thickness were not significantly different between groups. Choroidal neovascularization and retinal pigment epithelium tear developed in one patient in the treatment group. One patient in the treatment group and two patients in the observation group progressed to complete retinal pigment epithelium and outer retinal atrophy. A decrease in PED volume was associated with the development of complete retinal pigment epithelium and outer retinal atrophy (P=0.029). Conclusion: This small trial indicates that multitargeted, primarily antiangiogenic therapy does not favorably alter the natural course of drusenoid aPEDs. Keywords: drusenoid, geographic atrophy, anti-VEGF, PD

Screening for retinopathy of prematurity can be started in postmenstrual week 31 in very premature babies!

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The Generalized Contrast-to-Noise Ratio: A Formal Definition for Lesion Detectability

In the last 30 years, the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) has been used to estimate the contrast and lesion detectability in ultrasound images. Recent studies have shown that the CNR cannot be used with modern beamformers, as dynamic range alterations can produce arbitrarily high CNR values with no real effect on the probability of lesion detection. We generalize the definition of CNR based on the overlap area between two probability density functions. This generalized CNR (gCNR) is robust against dynamic range alterations; it can be applied to all kind of images, units, or scales; it provides a quantitative measure for contrast; and it has a simple statistical interpretation, i.e., the success rate that can be expected from an ideal observer at the task of separating pixels. We test gCNR on several state-of-the-art imaging algorithms and, in addition, on a trivial compression of the dynamic range. We observe that CNR varies greatly between the state-of-the-art methods, with improvements larger than 100%. We observe that trivial compression leads to a CNR improvement of over 200%. The proposed index, however, yields the same value for compressed and uncompressed images. The tested methods showed mismatched performance in terms of lesion detectability, with variations in gCNR ranging from -0.08 to +0.29. This new metric fixes a methodological flaw in the way we study contrast and allows us to assess the relevance of new imaging algorithms

The Generalized Contrast-to-Noise Ratio: A Formal Definition for Lesion Detectability

In the last 30 years, the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) has been used to estimate the contrast and lesion detectability in ultrasound images. Recent studies have shown that the CNR cannot be used with modern beamformers, as dynamic range alterations can produce arbitrarily high CNR values with no real effect on the probability of lesion detection. We generalize the definition of CNR based on the overlap area between two probability density functions. This generalized CNR (gCNR) is robust against dynamic range alterations; it can be applied to all kind of images, units, or scales; it provides a quantitative measure for contrast; and it has a simple statistical interpretation, i.e., the success rate that can be expected from an ideal observer at the task of separating pixels. We test gCNR on several state-of-the-art imaging algorithms and, in addition, on a trivial compression of the dynamic range. We observe that CNR varies greatly between the state-of-the-art methods, with improvements larger than 100%. We observe that trivial compression leads to a CNR improvement of over 200%. The proposed index, however, yields the same value for compressed and uncompressed images. The tested methods showed mismatched performance in terms of lesion detectability, with variations in gCNR ranging from -0.08 to +0.29. This new metric fixes a methodological flaw in the way we study contrast and allows us to assess the relevance of new imaging algorithms

WINROP identifies severe retinopathy of prematurity at an early stage in a nation-based cohort of extremely preterm infants

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the ability of a postnatal weight-gain algorithm (WINROP) to identify sight-threatening retinopathy of prematurity (ROP type 1) in a nation-based extremely preterm infant cohort. METHODS: This study enrolled all 707 live-born extremely preterm (gestational age [GA] &lt;27 weeks) infants, born 2004-2007 in Sweden; the Extremely preterm Infants in Sweden Study (EXPRESS). WINROP analysis was performed retrospectively in 407 of the infants using weekly weight gain to assess the preterm infant's risk of developing ROP type 1 requiring treatment. GA, birthweight (BW), and weekly postnatal weight measurements were entered into WINROP. WINROP signals with an alarm to indicate if the preterm infant is at risk for ROP type 1. RESULTS: In this extremely preterm population, WINROP correctly identified 96% (45/47) of the infants who required treatment for ROP type 1. The median time from alarm to treatment was 9 weeks (range, 4-20 weeks). CONCLUSIONS: WINROP, an online surveillance system using weekly weight gain, identified extremely preterm infants at risk for ROP type 1 requiring treatment at an early stage and with high sensitivity in a Swedish nation-based cohort