Researchers in Turkey evaluated the effect of intravitreal bevacizumab on macular function in the cases of exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). They found that intravitreal bevacizumab therapy induced a significant increase in mean retinal sensitivity and significant decrease in mean absolute scotoma size during 6 months. They also determined that the MP-1 microperimetry proved to be a valuable tool in the evaluation of functional benefit of exudative AMD therapy with intravitreal bevacizumab.

In this study, they included 21 eyes of 21 patients with exudative AMD and in each eye, at baseline and 1, 3 and 6 months after intravitreal bevacizumab injection, they assessed logMAR visual acuity, central 4° macular sensitivity, absolute scotoma size, fixation stability and fixation location by MP-1 microperimetry and optical coherence tomography (OCT) foveal morphologic changes. Following the initial treatment phase, which included three consecutive injections, they based their decision to re-treat on OCT and clinical findings. Subsequent injections could be administered at least 1 month after the previous injection period according to the OCT-guided treatment regimen.

The researchers in this study found that mean retinal sensitivity within central 4° (12 points) area had increased from 3.69 ± 3.44 dB at baseline to 7.16 ± 3.27 dB at month 6. In all controls after the treatment, they reported a significant increase in logMAR visual acuity (p<0.001) and MP-1 retinal sensitivity (p<0.001). Mean absolute scotoma in test point location had decreased significantly from 12 of the 76 applied test point locations measured at baseline to five test point locations (–7 test point locations; p<0.001) at month 6 showing statistical significance. Fixation properties had preserved in all patients 6 months after intravitreal bevacizumab treatment.

The following multicenter, prospective open-label, randomized study sought to determine whether nutritional supplementation with a targeted nutritional supplement improves visual acuity and function in age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

In it, 145 patients were randomly assigned to 2 different treatment groups. Interventions were lutein (10 mg), zeaxanthin (1 mg), astaxanthin (4 mg; AZYR SIFI, Catania, Italy) and antioxidants/vitamins supplementation formula or no dietary supplementation for 2 years. Primary outcome was mean changes in visual acuity (VA) at 12 and 24 months; other measures included contrast sensitivity (CS) and National Eye Institute visual function questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) scores at 12 and 24 months.

Patients in the treated group showed stabilization of VA with significantly (p=0.003) better VA scores (81.4 ± 7.2) compared to the nontreated group (76.8 ± 8.9) at 24-month follow-up. Furthermore, an improvement in CS (p=0.001) and final mean NEI VFQ=25 composite scores at 12 and 24 months higher in treated group compared to non-treated group were also shown (p<0.001).

In conclusion, patients treated with lutein/zeaxanthin and astaxanthin together with other nutrients were more likely to report clinically meaningful stabilization/improvements in VA, CS and visual function through 24 months compared with nontreated subjects. Further studies are needed with more patients and for longer periods of time.

To elucidate the association between macular pigment optical density (MPOD) and various types of obesity in the South-Indian population, investigators studied 300 eyes of 161 healthy volunteers of South-Indian origin.

They measured MPOD psychophysically at 0.25°, 0.50°, 1.00° and 1.75 eccentricities from fovea. Anthropometric measurements included waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) as well as body mass index (BMI). Using the World Health Organization Expert Consultation guidelines, the investigators defined obesity based on BMI alone (BMI ≥ 23 kg/m²), WC alone (WC ≥ 90 cm for men and ≥ 80 cm for women) and on WHR alone (≥ 0.90 for men and ≥ 0.85 for women). They defined isolated generalized obesity as increased BMI and normal WC and isolated abdominal obesity as increased WC and normal BMI. They defined combined obesity as increased BMI and increased WC.

Mean MPOD at all eccentricities was not significantly different between men and women, the investigators observed. They also noted that mean MPOD values did not significantly differ in various types of obesity, when compared with the normal subjects. On subgroup analysis, in age group ≥60 years, mean MPOD values were significantly higher in subjects with obesity based on BMI (0.61 vs 0.41, p=0.036), obesity based on WHR (0.67 vs 0.41, p=0.007) and isolated generalized obesity (0.66 vs 0.41, p=0.045) in comparison with normal subjects at 0.25° eccentricity.

The investigators reported finding lack of an association between MPOD and obesity in the South-Indian population. They noted a similar finding on age group- and gender-wise analyses.

The authors of this study assessed and compared the influence of cataract on measurements of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness by time domain optical coherence tomography (TD-OCT) and spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT). They found that the presence of cataract significantly affects RNFL thickness measurements by SD-OCT and TD-OCT.

They consecutively enrolled patients who underwent uncomplicated cataract surgery in this study and measured the peripapillary RNFL thickness before and 8 weeks after cataract surgery using TD-OCT and SD-OCT during the same visit. Additionally, they evaluated changes in the RNFL thickness measurement and signal strength (SS) following cataract surgery.

The authors included a total of 54 patients (54 eyes) and after excluding 19 of these eyes owing to poor imaging or low SS (<5), they included scans of 35 eyes in the final analysis. They identified a significant difference between the preoperative and postoperative SS values using SD-OCT, but not TD-OCT (p=0.002 and 0.789, respectively). They reported that the changes in RNFL thickness after cataract surgery were more prominent and frequent for SD-OCT than for TD-OCT. There was a significant correlation between change in preoperative RNFL thickness and SS changes for both TD-OCT (r²=0.410, p<0.001) and SD-OCT (r²=0.246, p=0.002).

To conclude, SD-OCT, which demonstrated more consistent change of RNFL measurements after cataract extraction, is not necessarily associated with lower RNFL thickness measurement performance in cataract cases, as more participants with cataract were excluded because of poor image quality or low SS, which was more associated with TD-OCT than SD-OCT.